Two PhD student's positions available within EU-funded project CINCHRON at the JMU
09/28/2017Within the EU-funded project CINCHRON, we shall study the photoperiodic seasonal responses of several insects, some of which are pest species, and use the recently developed CRISPR/Cas9 method to knock out clock genes in these species and to examine any effects on seasonal behaviour. Topic: Seasonal Chronobiology.
We will use a number of different approaches, some comparing robustly diapausing northern European Drosophilids such as D. ezoana to D. melanogaster in terms of differences in their clock function and related neuropeptide expression in order to test long-standing ideas about differences in circadian function in species living in northern versus southern latitudes.
Positions available for Würzburg:
Title:Temperature compensation and the D. ezoana clock
Host Institution: Wuerzburg University
Supervisor: Prof Charlotte Helfrich-Foerster
Secondment: University of Groningen to model internal/external coincidence and for CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis for 5 months.
Objectives: To discover the role played by the circadian clock in night-length measurement and induction of diapause in the northern European fruifly D. ezoana. The role and distribution of clock proteins and relevant clock-related neuropeptides will be studied under different photoperiodic and temperature conditions and mutagenesis (CRISPR/Cas9) of canonical clock genes will be used to examine whether clock genes measure night-length (which mediates diapause).
Title:Seasonal clock in pea aphids
Host Institution: Wuerzburg University
Supervisor: Prof Charlotte Helfrich-Foerster
Secondment: Universidad de Valencia for 2 months to learn aphid biology and BCAS České Budějovice for two months to learn CRISPR/Cas9 technology.
Objectives: To discover the role played by the circadian clock in the induction of diapause in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. Circadian behaviour will be characterised as will neuronal clock gene expression both temporally and spatially. CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis will be used to investigate whether clock mutations disrupt diapause.
Check the homepage for further information CINCHRON
Find details on a. m. positions here
