Postdoc in Wheat Immunity and Resistance Genetics

Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology
We undertake fundamental and applied research focused on interactions involving plants, pathogenic, symbiotic and saprotrophic fungi, bacteria and archaea and their role in forest and agricultural systems.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate, with an excellent scientific track and publication record and (preferentially) an initial postdoc experience to join a project combining phenomics, genetics, and genomics to address durable immunity in wheat and tradeoffs in plant immune responses. The work will be based at SLU Biocentrum in Uppsala (Sweden) and will be supported by a two years scholarship from the The Carl Trygger Foundation, and the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS).

The selected candidate will be involved in a project aimed at tackling important challenges related to the effectiveness and sustainability of resistance breeding, based on the study of interactions and tradeoffs between plant immune responses, and the identification of genetic traits mitigating such tradeoffs in wheat and its progenitors. Our group is very well integrated in the wheat community which will provide a scientifically and professionally stimulating environment and allows for a solid step in the candidate career development.

Your duties:
Within the project, the selected candidate is expected to work independently, and will be responsible for designing, planning, conducting, and reporting (in the form of first author publications) experimental work including:


• Phenotypic and genetic characterization of large biparental and GWAS populations of wheat using precision phenomics, micro-phenomics, and machine learning-aided image analysis, in collaboration with the microphenomics platform at IPK, and CREA.
• Analysis of plant immune responses for the identification of novel, non-canonical, resistance traits using a combination of long-read Nanopore sequencing, RNA sequencing, and small RNA sequencing.

We also strongly support and encourage candidates to participate to proposal development for national and European councils, independently apply for smaller funding, and build up expertise and a profile for further career development. We also support candidates willing to gain experience in the supervision of Bachelor and Master students.

Your qualifications:
Candidates should have a PhD degree in Plant Biology, Plant Pathology or related biological disciplines, with a demonstrated lab experience in plant pathology and fungal diseases. Experience with wheat or barley (or other cereals or Brachypodium) and their fungal pathogens is highly desired. Candidates must also have expertise in GWAS analysis and master R language. Experience with large polyploid genomes and knowledge of Python are highly desired. Experience with transcriptomics data analysis is a plus.

Candidate should also have overall good writing and communication skills, should be flexible and responsive to change, with a strong capacity to work in a team, and actively collaborate with partners in Sweden and abroad. The candidate is also expected to participate to lab life and department activities to communicate research to the broader community and the society.

Place of work:
Uppsala

Form of employment:
Stipend 24 months

Candidates will receive a scholarship from the The Carl Trygger Foundation

Extent:
100%

Starting date:
The selected candidate is expected to commit for 24 months and start no later than June 1st 2022 (or otherwise upon mutual agreement)

Application:
To apply for this position, use the online application platform to provide a CV with the name and email of two referees, a cover letter, and full list of publications.

Applications will be reviewed as they come, and candidates will be invited to interviews as we go. Decisions about recruitment can be made any time after the add is posted if a suitable candidate is found. The initial deadline for application is 2022-03-31. We also reserve the right to extend the deadline if necessary.

Academic union representatives:
https://internt.slu.se/en/my-employment/employee-associations/kontaktpersoner-vid-rekrytering/

Saco
Saco-S föreningen SLU

+46 (0)18 67 10 85

saco.ultuna@slu.se

ST
Lotta Olsson

+46 (0)18 67 15 36

lotta.olsson@slu.se

Seko
Peter Wickman

+46 (0)18 67 10 57

seko@slu.se



The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a world-class international university with research, education and environmental assessment within the sciences for sustainable life. Its principal sites are in Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala, but activities are also conducted at research stations, experimental parks and educational establishments throughout Sweden. We bring together people who have different perspectives, but they all have one and the same goal: to create the best conditions for a sustainable, thriving and better world.

SLU has just over 3,000 employees, 5,000 students and a turnover of SEK 3 billion. The university has invested heavily in a modern, attractive environment on its campuses.

www.slu.se