National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB)

National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB) is an exclusive national institute dedicated to undertake agricultural research in all the three domains of life including plants, animals and microbes. It is a complex of biotechnology with 28 state of the art labs each designated for a specified area along with glasshouses and containment facilities. Since its inception in 2007, NIGAB has been recognized nationally as well as internationally for quality research in agricultural biotechnology. Research programs of NIGAB primarily focus at enhancement plant and animal productivity by 10% at least and value added bio-products for national food security, thereby helping in achieving sustainable developmental goals for better economy in this country. Through traditional genetic engineering NIGAB has developed GMOs of wheat, groundnut, potato and tomato against diseases, drought and salinity which await approval from regulatory body for commercial utilization at farm level. It has also exploited marker assisted selection for development of new varieties of crops for rust, salinity and drought tolerance. NIGAB has embarked on new breeding technologies including, speed cloning, speed breeding, genomic selection and genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9/dCas9/CPf1 approaches for enhancement of plant productivity. Next Generation Sequencing data obtained through genome re-sequencing and transcriptome (RNA-seq) sequencing is being analyzed for varietal/hybrid identification, SNP markers development and gene discovery. Thirty novel genes related to various desirable traits in plants have been isolated and being genome edited in plants. NIGAB is a credible reference laboratory of biotechnology and molecular based diagnostic testing of GMOs, identification of unknown olive varieties and adulteration in exportable commodities for quality assurance. Tissue culture section has replaced infected banana with virus free banana in Sindh province.