POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN MOLECULAR PLANT-OOMYCETE INTERACTIONS. Institute Sophia Agrobiotech (ISA), INRAE-CNRS-Université Côte d’Azur, Sophia Antipolis, France

Context. The Institute Sophia Agrobiotech (ISA) unit located in Sophia Antipolis (France), invites appli-cations for a postdoctoral position available as part of the COOL project (ANR 2023-2026), entitled “Characterizing the early dialogue between host plants and pathogenic oomycetes: biological and phys-ical approaches”. The position is available in the Plant-Oomycete Interactions (IPO) team under the supervision of Dr Agnès Attard and Dr Eric Galiana for a period of 21 months.

Research environment and objectives. The IPO team aims at better understanding the interaction between the plant and the oomycete in order to consider new sustainable and environmentally friendly control methods and manage epidemic situation. In the soil, a plant disease begins with the establishment of a molecular dialog between the root cells and a pathogen. This rhizospheric dialog leads successively to the attraction of the pathogen towards the host, adhesion, association with telluric microorganisms, penetration and then colonization of plant tissues. COOL is a project that develops multidisciplinary approaches combining physics, electrophysiology, transcriptomics, metabolomics and functional analyses to understand how the proton effluxes emitted by the root cells contribute to oomycete attraction and aggregation on roots.

Tasks. In the context of a highly collaborative project,the applicant will focus on three tasks : (i) characterize the exudates of Arabidopsis mutants altered in attraction, (ii) correlate the results with the available transcriptome for the attraction phase and (iii) functionally analyze candidate genes for their involvement in the emission of a signal in the rhizosphere to drive the oomycete toward the roots.

Training and skills. Candidates should hold a PhD in biology/biochemistry and have an interest in plant sciences. Experience in protein or metabolite biochemistry is required, together with a strong motivation to learn and develop new methods. Experience in any of the following would also be advantageous: bioinformatics, metabolomic and proteomic analyses or plant biology. Fluency in French is not required.

Payment position. The position must be filled early in 2024. Working hours are fulltime. Salary and benefits are according to INRAE criteria (from 2643 to 3086 euros gross salary according to experience).

How to apply. Your application must include a letter (2 pages max) stating why you are interested to join the IPO team, your CV, a list of publications and names of three referees. The application form should be send as a single pdf document before 31/01/2024 to agnes.attard@inrae.fr and eric.galiana@inrae.fr.