1 Postdoctoral position in Bioinformatics - Evolutionary Genomics of Insect Vectors of Apple Disease in Italy | Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige (IASMA) - Fondazione Edmund Mach

A postdoc position is available in the Chemical Ecology unit, Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems and Bioresources department of the Research and Innovation Centre. The position is related to the project Scopazzi funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento (Accordo di Programma) and the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers in Trentino (APOT) and aimed at providing new insights into the biology and ecology of the insects vectors of apple proliferation for the development of sustainable control strategies.

The successful candidate will work on genomics and evolution of two insects (hemipterans C. melanoneura and C. picta) which are the main vectors of the “apple proliferation”, phytoplasma causing illness in the apple trees. Successful candidate will apply bioinformatics tools to get new insights in the biology and ecology of these insect vectors.

Tasks

Initial tasks will be to assemble and analyse the draft genomes and transcriptomes of C. melanoneura and C. picta the two putative psyllid vectors of the apple proliferation Candidatus Phytoplasma mali. Sequencing will be done on individuals sampled from Trentino populations, and may be extended to other unknown hosts of the phytoplasma. The draft genome of the carried phytoplasmas, and those of likely endosymbionts such as Wolbachia, will be extracted and compared to available ones. The main duty will be to undertake comparative genomic studies (between the two psyllids and against other hemipterans) aimed at highlighting some of the differences between the two hosts focusing on: their evolutionary history, their evolutionary genetics, and their repertoire of chemosensory genes used to sense apple trees.

The postdoc will join a large interdepartmental project involving various researchers and students (including entomologists, molecular evolutionists, bioinformaticians, microbiologists) whose final goal is to disentangle the biology of the vector-phytoplasma-host biology. One of the objective is to find which are the phytoplasma host (vectors and plants) during the winter cycle, characterise their biology and eventually defining species specific field trapping. The successful candidate is expected to actively interact with the other members of the hosting lab (Chemical Ecology) as well as other member of project, help planning research, propose his/her idea, and help (or guide, depending on his/her attitude) in article preparation.

Applicants must be an enthusiast postdoc with previous expertise in comparative genomics/transcriptomics using next-generation sequencing data and bioinformatics tools. Unix environment and some programming is required. The position is available for two years.

Keywords

Bioinformatics, Genomics, Evolution, C. melanoneura and C. picta, Candidatus Phytoplasma mali

Language:

Fluent in spoken and written English (C1)

IT

Unix/Linux environment, Python Perl or other programming, analysis of next-generation sequencing data.

Title

PhD in Bioinformatics, Plant Science, Agricultural Sciences, Genomics, Evolution, Biology, Entomology, Zoology

Experience in the scientific themes of the project

• Independent and self-motivated attitude
• Strong teamwork ability
• Capable to interact in a multinational setting

Supervisor

Anfora Gianfranco