MSCA-IF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Plant Physiology

Professor Miguel López Gómez , from the Department of Plant Physiology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2018 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/09Qg).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. It serves more than 60000 students per year, including many foreign students, as UGR is the leader host institution in the Erasmus program. UGR, featuring 3650 professors and more than 2000 auxiliary personnel, offers a total of 75 degrees through its 112 departments and 28 centers.

UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding. UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://www.arwu.org/), and it is also well recognized for its web presence (http://www.4icu.org/top200/).

Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of H2020, both at partner and coordination. For the duration of the Seventh Framework Programme, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 17.97 million euros, and for H2020, until 2015, more than 25 projects with total funding of more than 6 million euros. Our more than 3,000 researchers are grouped into 365 research groups covering all scientific fields and disciplines.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

Our main goal is to study the effects and responses to environmental factors in the symbiotic interaction between soil bacteria and legumes in order to improve the efficiency of biological nitrogen fixation under stress conditions.

The Nitrogen Fixation Group of the University of Granada is particularly interested in study the impact of soil salinity on the rizobium-legume symbiosis, since this factor is responsible of the reduction of productivity of many crops in the Mediterranean regions, among which are included legumes. In addition, legumes are good candidate species for the restoration of unproductive soils due to their capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen and incorporate it to the soil.

Most of our studies address the involvement of hormones and growth regulators, such as abcisic acid, brassinosteroids or polyamines, in the alleviation of the negative effects caused by salinity on the symbiosis and the biological nitrogen fixation process. In our studies utilize molecular and biochemical approaches in order to identify genes and molecules suitable as stress-markers that will allow to increase the knowledge of the mechanisms behind the stress resistance of this important process. In addition, we have used genetically modified rhizobial strains with the aim to determine their contribution towards the symbiosis stress resistance. We take advantage of Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus as model legumes and we apply our knowledge to the study of traditional grain legumes such as Phaseolus vulgaris or Medicago sativa.

Project description

• Rhizobium-legume symbiosis: biological nitrogen fixation.
• Physiological, biochemical and molecular aspects of salt stress in the symbiosis model Medicagotruncatula-Sinorhizobiummeliloti and Lotus japonicus-Mesorhizobium loti as well as in other grain and forage legumes of agricultural interest.
• Nodule carbon and nitrogen metabolism.
• Markers of oxidative stress in response to salinity in the rhizobium-legume symbiosis.
• Symbiosis versus pathogenesis during the initial stages of the symbiosis establishment.
• Use of the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis for the recovery of degraded or contaminated soils.
• Interaction between rhizobium and benefitial fungi in the symbiosis stablishment.

Research Area

• Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Miguel López Gómez (mlgomez@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)