Missions

In the context of a project funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR), we are offering a 24-month post-doctoral position starting on January 1st, 2024. The position aims to study the evolution and ecology of asexual reproduction in planktonic tunicates of the Salpidae family.
The research will focus on two species, Thalia democratica and Salpa fusiformis, which are both highly abundant in the bay of Villefranche-sur-mer during seasonal blooms. The salp population experiences exponential growth during spring and autumn swarms due to a drastic but transitory increase in their rate of asexual reproduction when favorable environmental conditions are present. The objective of the research project is to gain a better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying asexual reproduction in salps and to investigate the effects of environmental fluctuations on these mechanisms.

Activités

The post-doctoral researcher will utilize imaging techniques such as electronic, confocal and light-sheet microscopy, along with genomic and transciptomic approaches including RNAseq and single-cell RNAseq, to construct a detailed cellular and molecular atlas of the budding stolon—the structure responsible for asexual reproduction in salps. Additionally, the candidate will compare the transcriptome of salps raised under controlled conditions to examine the impact of temperature and food availability on the identified budding mechanisms. The latter analysis aims to explore the relationship between salp demography and the developmental plasticity of asexual reproduction in these organisms. The resulting data will provide unprecedented insights into the genes involved in asexual reproduction, allowing for phylogeny-guided comparisons with sexual and asexual reproduction in other tunicates. Ultimately, this research will contribute to reconstructing the molecular evolution of non-embryonic development within this group.

Compétences

Candidates for this post should have solid experience in bioinformatics, particularly in transcriptomics and genomics, as well as in developmental biology. Experience in zooplankton ecology and biology is also required.

Contexte de travail

The research will be conducted within the Non-Embryonic Development group (www.tiozzolab.org) at the Laboratory at the Developmental Biology of Villefranche (LBDV), in collaboration with the group of Bettina Meyer from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)(https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Bettina-Meyer-Lab-2). The post-doctoral researcher will be supervised by Alexandre Alié and Stefano Tiozzo. The hosting institution offers an equipped imaging platform, next-generation sequencers, a bioinformatic support staff, an animal facility and two boats for field collection. The laboratory is part of the Institut de la mer de Villefranche (IMEV), located on the French Riviera between Nice and Monaco.