Navdeep Gill
Post-Doctoral Fellow
navdeep.gill (at) botany.ubc.ca

Long term Research Objective:
Understanding the fundamental aspects of genome organization and evolution with an emphasis on transposable element-mediated gene and genome evolution.

Research Interests:
How the transposable elements arise, evolve and function in the context of the genome is the primary biological question that interests me. Toward this end, my research objectives have been focused on the role of transposable elements as modulators of genome architecture, function and subsequent evolution of genes and genomes in both monocots and dicots. High throughput comparative and computational genomics coupled with next generation sequencing technologies are enabling us to understand how these sequences have shaped genomes during evolution and, also investigate their role behind the vast phenotypic diversity observed in plant genomes.

Currently, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Rieseberg lab, my focus is to comprehend the role these elements play in higher order physical structuring of the sunflower genome, including chromosomal rearrangements -one of the major contributors to speciation.

As a part of the Sunflower Genome Canada Project (http://www.sunflowergenome.org) to generate a reference genome for sunflower and Compositae, I am also developing a sequence-based physical map of sunflower using a mapping approach developed by Keygene N.V. This physical map, when integrated with the genetic map will be a complementary approach to improve the genome assembly and further our studies on the sunflower genome organization and evolution.

Publications:

N.C. Kane, Navdeep Gill, M.G. King, J.E. Bowers, H. Berges, J. Gouzy, E. Bachlava, N.B. Langlade, Z. Lai, M. Stewart, J.M. Burke, P. Vincourt, S.J. Knapp, and L.H. Rieseberg 2011. Progress towards a reference genome for sunflower. Botany  89: 429–437.

Navdeep Gill, Phillip San Miguel, Braham Dhillon, Brian Abernathy, Hye Ran Kim, Lincoln Stein, Doreen Ware, Rod Wing and Scott A. Jackso. 2010. Dynamic Oryza Genomes: Repetitive DNA Sequences as Genome Modeling Agents. Rice 3: 251.

Schmutz, J., S.B. Cannon, J. Schlueter, J. Ma, D. Hyten, Q. Song, T. Mitros, W. Nelson, G.D. May, Navdeep Gill, M. Peto, D. Goodstein, J.J. Thelen, J. Cheng, T. Sakurai, T. Umezawa, J. Du, M. Bhattacharyya, D. Sandhu, D. Grant, T. Joshi, M. Libault, X-C. Zhang, D. Xu1 M. Futrell-Griggs, B. Abernathy, U. Hellsten K. Berry, J. Grimwood, R.A. Wing, P. Cregan, G. Stacey, J. Specht, D. Rokhsar, R.C. Shoemaker, S.A. Jackson. 2010. Genome sequence of the paleopolyploid soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). Nature 463: 178-183.

Navdeep Gill, Seth Findley, Jason G. Walling,  Christian Hans, Jianxin Ma, Jeff Doyle, Gary Stacey, and Scott A. Jackson. 2009. Molecular and chromosomal evidence for allopolyploidy in soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Plant Physiology 151:1167-1174.

Dongying Gao, Navdeep Gill, Hye-Ran Kim, Jason G Walling, Wenli Zhang, Chuanzhu Fan, Yeisoo Yu, Jianxin Ma, Phillip SanMiguel, Ning Jiang, Rod A. Wing, Jiming Jiang and Scott A. Jackson. 2009. A lineage-specific centromere retrotransposon in Oryza brachyantha. Plant Journal 60: 820-831.

Rajat Aggarwal, Thiago R Bennati, Navdeep Gill, Chaoyang Zhao, Ming-Shun Chen, John P Fellers, Brandon J Schemerhorn and Jeff J Stuart. A BAC-based physical map of the Hessian fly genome anchored to polytene chromosomes. 2009. BMC Genomics10: 293.

Gill Navdeep, C. Hans and S.A. Jackson. 2008. An overview of plant chromosome structure. Cytogenetic and Genome Res. 120: 194-201.

Schlueter, J.A., J.L. Goicoechea, K. Collura, Navdeep Gill, J-Y Lin, Y.Yu, D. Kudrna, A. Zuccolo, C.E, Vallejos, M. Munoz-Torres, M.W. Blair, J. Tohme, J. Tomkins, P. McClean, R.A. Wing and S.A. Jackson 2008. BAC-end sequence analysis and a draft physical map of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genome. Trop. Plant Biol. 1: 40-48.

Kim, H.K, B. Hurwitz, Y. Yu, K. Collura, Navdeep Gill, P. SanMiguel, J.C. Mullikin, C. Maher, W. Nelson,M. Wissotski, M. Braidotti, D. Kudrna, J.L. Goigochia, L. Stein, D. Ware, S.A. Jackson, C.Soderlund and R.A. Wing. 2008. Construction, alignment and analysis of 12 framework physical maps that represent the 10 genome types of the genus Oryza. Genome Biol. 9: R45.

Barbara L Hass-Jacobus, Montona Futrell-Griggs, Navdeep Gill, Brian Abernathy, , Rick Westerman, Jose-Luis    Goicoechea, Joshua Stein, Patricia Klein, Bonnie Hurwitz, Bin Zhou, Fariborz Rakhshan, Abhijit Sanyal, Jer-Young Lin, Jason G Walling, Mei Zhong Luo, Jetty Siva S Ammiraju, Dave Kudrna, Hye Ran Kim, Doreen Ware, Rod A Wing, Phillip San Miguel, Scott A Jackson. 2006. Integration of hybridization-based markers (overgos) into physical maps for comparative and evolutionary explorations in the genus Oryza and in Sorghum. BMC Genomics 7:199.

Ammiraju JSS, Luo M, Goicoechea JL, Wang W, Kudrna D, Mueller C, Talag J, Kim H, Sisneros NB, Blackmon B, Fang E, Tomkins JB, Brar D, MacKill D, McCouch S, Kurata N, Lambert G, Galbraith DW, Arumuganathan K, Rao K, Walling JG, Gill Navdeep, Yu Y, SanMiguel P, Soderlund C, Jackson S & Wing RA. 2006. The Oryza bacterial artificial chromosome library resource: Construction and analysis of 12 deep-coverage large-insert BAC libraries that represent the 10 genome types of the genus Oryza. Genome Research 16:140-147.

Gosal SS, Kaur A, Gill Navdeep, Malhotra PK, Gill R, Gill MS, Sandhu JS & Dhaliwal HS. 2004. High Frequency Somatic Embryogenesis, Plant Regeneration and Genetic Transformation of Sugarcane. Crop Improvement.

Gill Navdeep, Gill R & Gosal SS. 2004. Factors enhancing somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration in sugarcane. Indian J Biotechnology 3: 119-123.

Gill Navdeep, Gill R & Gosal SS. 2002. Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration in commercial cultivars of sugarcane. Crop Improvement 29: 28-34.