General information
Offer title : Postdoctoral position on the origin of eukaryotic genes of prokaryotic ancestry (M/F) (H/F)
Reference : UMR8079-PURLOP-006
Number of position : 1
Workplace : GIF SUR YVETTE
Date of publication : 17 October 2024
Type of Contract : FTC Scientist
Contract Period : 24 months
Expected date of employment : 1 January 2025
Proportion of work : Full time
Remuneration : between 3081.33 and 3519.85 euros (brut salary for an experience of less than two years)
Desired level of education : Niveau 8 - (Doctorat)
Experience required : Indifferent
Section(s) CN : Organisation, expression and evolution of genomes Bioinformatics and systems biology
Missions
Recent advances in environmental microbiology, metagenomics and phylogenomics strongly suggest that the eukaryotic cell evolved from symbiotic consortia involving an Asgard archaeon and, at least, the alphaproteobacterial ancestor of the mitochondrion. However, many genes of prokaryotic origin in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) appear to originate neither from archaea nor Alphaproteobacteria, suggesting that other bacteria may have contributed to eukaryogenesis as additional symbionts or gene donors. This postdoctoral project aims at refining the complement, distribution and specific evolutionary origin of prokaryotic-like genes/proteins and sequence signatures present in LECA through bioinformatic approaches, comparative genomics and molecular phylogeny. We will use diverse genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes that are publicly available or have been generated in our team. The postdoc will be involved in their analysis using and/or adapting different bioinformatics tools.
Activities
- Data mining in public genomic databases
- Bioinformatic analysis of the distribution and specific evolutionary origin of prokaryotic-like genes/proteins and/or other sequence signatures in the last common eukaryotic ancestor
- Comparative genomics
- Molecular phylogeny
Skills
- Expertise in bioinformatics, notably comparative genomics and molecular phylogeny
- Good knowledge of microbial diversity and the phylogenetic tree of life
- Capacity to code (e.g. Python, Perl, R)
- Biostatistics
- Fluent in English (written and oral)
- Good presentation and communication skills, autonomy, organization and critical thinking.
Work Context
This position is funded by the ERC AdG SYMBEK. The postdoc will work at the DEEM team - Diversity Ecology and Evolution of Microbes (http://www.deemteam.fr/en/). Our laboratory is located in the Campus of the University Paris-Saclay, ~30 km south of Paris. A suburban train connects the Campus to the city.
Constraints and risks
The postdoc work does not involve major risk, since it involves essentially computer analyses. The work will be done under normative security rules.