Postdoctoral Research Associate in beneficial microbial associations of plants (Fixed Term)
Applications are invited for a post-doctoral research associate in beneficial microbial associations of plants to work with Professor Giles Oldroyd at the Crop Science Centre, starting autumn 2023.
Most plants, including many important crops, live in beneficial associations with microorganisms, including arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. AM fungi mine the soil substrate for minerals and deliver these to the host plant at specialized structures within root cells, while N-fixing bacteria live inside nodules and convert molecule dinitrogen into ammonia for delivery to the plant. Both associations are controlled by the environmental status of the plant and our group has recently shown some of the key regulators that control this process for AM associations. Those regulators also function in nodulation, but their role in the interaction with N-fixing bacteria appears different to that with AM fungi.
The project aims to understand the roles of these regulators in symbiosis contrasting their functions in both fungal and bacterial interactions. Opportunities exist to apply this knowledge for enhancing the utility of beneficial associations for agricultural impact.
The approach will be multi-disciplinary, combining molecular genetics, physiological and cellular biology techniques in model and crop plants as applicable.
It is essential that applicants have a PhD in the field of plant molecular biology, and genetics; available knowledge of laser scanning confocal microscopy would be advantageous.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 2 years in the first instance.
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Please upload CV, publications list and a CHRIS/6. As a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, the University of Cambridge does not use journal level metrics when assessing the quality of research outputs. Applicants should not include journal level metrics, such as the Journal Impact Factor, anywhere in their application materials. Applicants should highlight a select subset of what they consider to be their most important research outputs and provide a brief narrative account of their significance.
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