Thèse financée en epigenetique et plasticité phénotypique
CDD · Thèse · 36 mois Bac+5 / Master Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (UMR5242 CNRS) · LYON (France) oui
Date de prise de poste : 1 octobre 2021
Mots-Clés
Epigenetique Variation de croissance nutrition traits exagérés DNA méthylation NGS
Description
Three-year PhD
fellowship
Developmental phenotypic
plasticity in water striders
Where: The Khila lab at
the Institute of Functional Genomics, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, UMR CNRS 5242,
Lyon, France
http://igfl.ens-lyon.fr/equipes/a.-khila-developmental-genomics-and-evolution
Starting date: October 1st, 2021 or slightly after
Deadline for
applications: June 30th,
2021
Project title: Molecular origin of extreme growth
variation with focus on DNA methylation
Background: Growth
variation under environmental influence is widespread in nature, yet our
understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms remains limited. This
process, known as developmental phenotypic plasticity, provides an invaluable
opportunity to understand the genotype-phenotype relationship and the impact of
the environment on this relationship.
Hypothesis: Variation in nutritional input causes extreme growth
variation through changes in DNA methylation states and transcriptional
regulation. This hypothesis is supported by preliminary data.
Model
system: We test this hypothesis in the water
strider Microvelia longipes (Image).
The males have longer legs than females, but also extreme variation in hind-leg
length between males (Image). Our recent work showed that males use their hind
legs as weapons during contests, and that long-legged males have significantly
higher chance to dominate egg-laying sites and access females (Toubiana
and Khila, Proc B. 2019). We recently identified the gene BMP11
as a primary regulator of scaling relationships between the body and the hind-legs
in a male-specific manner (Toubiana
et al. PLoS Biology, 2021). We also built the resources required
for this project, including a high-quality genome and transcriptomes (Toubiana,
Armisen et al. BMC Biology 2021), isogenic lines and lab
populations (easy to keep), DNA methylation datasets, as well as various
developmental genetics tools (Toubiana
et al. PLoS Biology, 2021).
Project: The successful PhD candidate will collaborate with a team
of postdocs and lab technicians studying how variation in nutritional input
causes extreme growth variation through changes in epigenetic states and transcriptional
regulation. The objectives are:
- Build the genome-wide methylome of this species (using
Bisulfite sequencing and isogenic lines)
- Determine the fraction of DNA methylation sites that
responds to nutritional treatment
- Determine the genes whose expression profiles correlate
with changes in nutritional treatment and changes in DNA methylation states.
- Functionally test (by RNAi or Crispr-Cas) a small
selection of the loci identified above.
Mandatory requirement: Master’s degree (or equivalent).
Concepts to be employed:
Epigenetics, genetic variation, nutritional manipulation, developmental
genetics
Expertise we seek or to be acquired: DNA methylation analyses, Bioinformatics, Statistics,
Programming in R
Skills: Good English (written and
spoken), motivation, creativity, curiosity, good work ethics, team-work, and good
inter-personal relationship with colleagues. Knowledge
in evolutionary biology, epigenetics or development is a plus.
Candidature
Procédure : How to apply: By email to abderrahman.khila@ens-lyon.fr with a motivation letter explaining why you are interested by this position and how you think you are qualified, your CV and names and e-mail addresses of two or three referees who can write letters of reference on your behalf.
Date limite : 30 juin 2021
Contacts
Abderrahman Khila
abNOSPAMderrahman.khila@ens-lyon.fr
Offre publiée le 18 juin 2021, affichage jusqu'au 10 juillet 2021