英国利兹大学博士后职位—植物学

Research Fellow in Plant Sciences

University of Leeds

Description

You will work on the project ‘Temperature-Responsive Control of Splicing’ to understand how an environmental factor, ambient temperature, influences flowering time in Arabidopsis, using a novel epigenetic mechanism. This project stems from our unpublished background work, which revealed the involvement of new factors in the activation or repression of flowering.

Our changing climate is having a dramatic effect on the growth and development of plants that support our civilisation. It is therefore essential to understand how plants respond to threats like increased temperature, to secure the sustainability of the global food supply. Flowering, directly or indirectly, produces almost all our food and is strongly impacted by temperature. Using a forward genetic screen we have discovered a gene involved in the perception of temperature and flowering time. The identity of this gene has revealed an elegant, mechanism to enable ambient temperature to control gene expression. You will characterise this mechanism and use it to engineer plants that respond differently to temperature, as well as investigating its wider ramifications, beyond flowering time and temperature.

For this role you will need a PhD in Plant Sciences or a closely allied discipline, along with practical experience in: analysis of arabidopsis and ambient temperature effects on flowering time, design and execution of RNA-Seq experiments, and confocal microscopy. You will work with a high level of personal initiative and autonomy, utilising your strong analytical skills and expertise in Molecular Biology to achieve the aims of the project. Although you will be based in Leeds, this project is a BBSRC-funded collaboration between research groups in Leeds and Dundee and you will work closely and collaboratively with the project team in an interdisciplinary setting, so you will need excellent communication skills and the ability to build strong working relationships. You will also need to communicate your research through reports, publications and presentations. The nature of the work requires you to have a meticulous attention to detail and a conscientious approach to checking the accuracy of information. You must display the flexibility and adaptability to respond quickly to priorities and meet deadlines/demands.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Professor Brendan Davies

Tel: +44 (0)113 343 3123 Email: b.h.davies@leeds.ac.uk