The Natural History Museum, London (UK; Diana Percy) is offering a fully-funded 3 year PhD studentship jointly supervised with the University of Southampton (UK; Mark Chapman), and the University of British Columbia (Canada; Quentin Cronk), starting on 1 November 2014 (or as soon as possible thereafter). Deadline for applications: 19 September 2014 The studentship is only open to those who qualify for 'Home' tuition fees (generally UK/EU residence). We are looking to recruit a student interested in studying the evolution and genomics of a Hawaiian plant gall radiation. Despite the economic importance of galling (many plant pests are gallers) very little is known about the molecular developmental processes underlying galling. This project will use the recently proposed and innovative approach of "evolutionary developmental transcriptomics". Further, the project will use a novel application of "dual-RNAseq" to co-generate plant and insect transcriptomes under gall interaction. The project is in two parts: (i) the ecological and developmental characterization of gall biology in a insect-plant island radiation. This will involve fieldwork in the Hawaiian Islands. (ii) Genomic approaches to identify the genes, regulatory networks, and expression patterns involved in shifts to different gall phenotypes among closely related insect species. The project will use whole genome sequencing and de novo assembly of the plant and insect genomes (guided by reference genomes of Eucalyptus and Diaphorina/Trioza), together with leaf (infected and uninfected) and nymph transcriptomics to identify candidate genes associated with the perturbation of plant tissue during gall formation. Bioinformatics will include construction of gene coexpression networks to predict plant and insect gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and gene network modules (GNMs) using galled and ungalled leaves. Our approach will draw on recent developmental work on leaf shape using the generation of self-organizing maps (SOMs) and gene coexpression network analysis to describe GNM rewiring between evolutionary-developmental states. The PhD student will gain knowledge across a broad range of areas from fieldwork, lab work, systematics, genomics and evolution of development. Training will be in plant and insect genomics and development, candidate gene identification and Bayesian modelling methods, RNA and DNA collection and extraction, next generation sequencing methods, genomic assemblies and bioinformatics methods, and insect and plant biology. For further details contact Dr Diana Percy (d.percy@nhm.ac.uk) Interested parties will need to provide: - Curriculum vitae. - Covering letter outlining your interest in the particular PhD project, relevant skills training, experience and qualifications for research, and a statement of how this PhD project fits your career development plans. - Transcripts of undergraduate and Masters' degree results. - Names and email addresses of two academic references including (if applicable) Masters' project supervisor. "Percy, Diana"
We should preserve biodiversity
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
The Natural History Museum, London (UK; Diana Percy) is offering a fully-funded 3 year PhD studentship
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