Mots-Clés

Coral Population Genomics Genotype Environment Associations GWAS

Description

A 12-month junior post-doctoral position is opening at the Institute of Cancer and Aging in Nice (IRCAN, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France). The position is opened within the framework of the TARA Pacific research project and funded by the ANR Grant “Coralforce” (ANR-22-CE20-0007-01).

Project framework:

The main objective of the project is to investigate the implication of genome maintenance genes in the adaptation of reef-building corals to changing environments. This research program relies on the extensive Pacific wide reef samples from the TARA Pacific expedition centered on three coral genera (Porites, Pocillopora and Millepora) (Planes et al. 2019, see Planes & Allemand 2023) for an overview of the already performed analyses). During the expedition, 2703 coral colonies have been sampled in 32 Pacific islands (Lombard et al. 2023). Metagenomic, Metatranscriptomic and Metabarcode sequences have been produced for 300 of these colonies per genera (Belser et al. 2023). As the TARA Pacific program also produced annotated reference genomes for the three genera sampled (Noel et al. 2023), genome wide SNPs have been identified in each of these samples. Biochemical stress markers phenotypes have been measured for all the sampled colonies (Porro et al. 2023). Extensive historical and extemporaneous environmental quality measures were also associated to each sampling site (Lombard et al. 2023). The preliminary analysis of a third of the samples already allowed for the identification of different phenotypic and genetic signatures in relation to the environment among the three coral genera (Rouan et al. 2023, Porro et al. 2023, Voolstra et al. 2023). The recruited postdoctoral fellow will be in charge of identifying the genetic components of the coral response to the environment.

Scientific goal:

The postdoctoral fellow will develop Genotype Environment Association (GEA) and Genomewide Association (GWAS) studies from these samples, with the aim of identifying SNPs (and the functional genes they belong to) that: 1) display different alleles in different environments, 2) are implicated in biochemical stress response phenotypes (such as ubiquitination, oxidative stress response, telomere length variation, etc…). Coupled to the genomic selection profiles, these results should allow for the identification of putative adaptive genes in these corals.

The postdoctoral fellow will develop his work in collaboration within the international TARA Pacific consortium, and under the direct supervision of Pr. Paola Furla and Dr. D. Forcioli. The work of the postdoctoral fellow will be part of the Adaptation &Resilience Workgroup currently coordinated by D. Forcioli within the TARA Pacific consortium, in interaction with the Coral Health workgroup of the consortium, to which P. Furla participates.

The postdoctoral fellow will directly collaborate with a PhD currently in charge of the phenotypic analyses.

Candidate profile/Required skills:

The successful postdoctoral fellow should have a solid background in population genomics, a proven ability to analyze NGS data. A previous experience in GEA and GWAS would be an asset. Previous knowledge of coral biology is not a prerequisite. As the salary is commensurate to a junior postdoc position, the candidate must have defended his/her thesis less than 2 years ago.

Contract: The contract is scheduled to begin on January 15th 2024, for a total duration of one year.

Application process: The candidates must upload on the CNRS website a motivation letter, a short summary of achievements and mastered techniques, a curriculum vitae with publication and communication list and the names of (at least) two referees. The application deadline is fixed to October 31st, 2023.

Information requests should be sent by email to paola.furla@univ-cotedazur.fr and didier.forcioli@univ-cotedazur.fr.