At the Department of Evolution & Biological Diversity, France (Toulouse,
CNRS – UPS)
Project objectives
The position is offered within an ANR project, FRADISYN. This project
aims at understanding the consequences of fragmentation and global
warming on a lizard species, the common lizard (/Zootoca vivipara/). The
major objective is to predict responses to global warming through
plastic and evolutionary changes of dispersal behaviour and thermal
physiology (heat absorption, thermal preferences).We created, in a
semi-natural experimental system, several habitat patches connected by
corridors and manipulated for their climatic conditions. In order to
study how common lizards can adapt to global warming, we measured
phenotypic variation (behaviour, melanism and thermal preferences) and
life history traits (dispersal, survival, growth) through successive
generations of populations maintained in different climatic conditions
(e.g. Bestion et al. 2015, Plos Biol., Bestion et al. 2015 Eco. Lett.).
Using this approach allows us to tease apart the influence of dispersal,
selection and phenotypic plasticity into the response to climate change.
The post-doc fellow will primarily work on the molecular part of the
project. Along with the monitoring of phenotypic traits, we collected
DNA samples on all individuals and we recently obtained the
transcriptome of few individuals characterized for their phenotype
(dispersal, behaviour, melanism and thermal preferences) and from
different climatic conditions. The main objective for the post-doc
fellow is to detect genomic footprints of selection in response to
climate change. The work will be performed in two steps: (i) thanks to
this transcriptome and to the existing literature, we will select few
candidate genes to be sequenced on a subset of individuals to study the
selection processes which occurred during the past experiments on the
basis of nucleotidic polymorphism. (ii) Furthermore, we started a
long-term experiment manipulating climatic conditions and connectivity
among patches in a full-crossed design. This experiment will provide the
opportunity to monitor simultaneously the changes in nucleotidic
polymorphism and in gene expression in response to warmer climates and
fragmentation.
Task of the postdoctoral fellow
The recruited researcher will be in charge of 1) selecting candidate
genes from the literature and the transcriptomic dataset, 2) performing
the associated molecular biology work (extraction, PCR, sequencing), 3)
collecting extra samples for gene expression analyses and performing
these analyses (including qPCR) and 5) analyzing data (population
genetic framework) and writing articles. This work will likely lead to,
at least, two articles as a first author.
Required skills
Able to manage research and administrative activities
Knowledge in evolutionary ecology and the molecular basis of evolution.
Conceptual and technical knowledge in molecular biology
Able to actively participate as a member of a research team.
Good written and verbal communication skills
Experience with genomic data manipulation and statistical analysis
Closing of the applications: 15/02/2016Effective start date: April-May 2016
Gross monthly salary: ~1850 € free of taxes
Applications to be sent to / Information to be taken with:
Thank you for sending CV, cover letter and contact details of at least
two references.
Contact
Dr. Julien Cote
Email : julien.cote@univ-tlse3.fr
Website : http://www.juliencote.fr/
Dr. Delphine Legrand
Email : Delphine.LEGRAND@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr
Other people involved
Dr. Elvire Bestion, Dr. Simon Blanchet, Dr. Adam Richards, Dr. Murielle
Richard, Félix Pellerin, Lucie Di Gesu.
