Job Description

The Mach Foundation is funding four research fellowships leading to a PhD degree in collaboration with European Universities. The research projects will be carried out at the research centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation. FEM supports the possibility to link this grant with a PhD course in internationally recognized Universities. The grant is for three years with a possible extension of one year. Registration costs for the PhD course will be covered by FEM.
1. Epigenetics in fruit trees.
This research project will target the study of epigenetic (DNA and histone methylation) and post-transcriptional (small RNAs) gene regulation in grape and apple during fruit development as well as upon biotic and abiotic stresses.
2. Molecular and genetic study of fruit ripening and apple quality.
The candidate will address the study of fruit ripening and apple quality using different approaches such as monitoring ripening-related phenotypes, exploring candidate genes and haplotypes variability, and investigating changes in gene expression at single gene and whole-transcriptome levels.
3. Understanding resistance and susceptibility mechanism to fire blight in Rosaceae.
Fire blight is the most destructive apple disease. Goals of this project are the characterization of the molecular response of apple to fire blight using a genomic approach (eg. next-generation sequencing of transcriptome) and the development of new strategies for marker-assisted molecular breeding.
4. Phylogenomics of apple and grape varieties.
The investigation of intra-specific relationships using classical phylogenetic methods is a challenging task because of scarcity of characters. The research will be carried out by amassing and analyzing large sequence data sets, including alignments of whole chloroplast genomes and of long range PCR products from nuclear genome.

Qualifications/Skills Required

Basics of molecular biology, genetics, and/or plant pathology, proved lab experience in molecular biology (DNA/RNA isolation, PCR amplification, fragment analysis by electrophoresis separation).
IT:
Excel, Word, statistic software. For the bioinformatics position (nr. 4), knowledge of Linux OS and shell/PERL programming is preferable.
FOR APPLICATION please visit:
http://www.fondazioneedmundmach.it/sperimentazione_context2.jsp?ID_LINK=2883&area=6