“Evolutionary genomics of fruit pests: Drosophila suzukii and other grapevine parasites”

We are seeking an enthusiast student to employ genomics and phylogeny to understand the molecular basis of behavioural innovation in insects.

The student will focus on fruit flies, in particular Drosophila suzukii, an emerging fruit pest which shows an unprecedented ecological behaviour when compared to other fruit flies. Other models will be grapevine specific insect parasites. The goal is to understand how and when this species developed their novel ecological behaviour.
The student will employ bioinformatics (including molecular phylogenetics, clock studies, comparative genomics and
transcriptomics) to study the evolutionary history of the above species and of some of their gene families. Depending on student attitude/interest there may be space for other work spanning from chemical ecology to evodevo, as well as for the development of student’s own ideas.

Most of the training/work will be carried out at the Research and Innovation Centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM), an agricultural research institute located in the Italian Alps. Part of the training will be done at an external PhD school chosen by the candidate in conjunction with FEM. Supervision will be given by Omar Rota-Stabelli (phylogenomics) and Gianfranco Anfora (chemical behaviour) as well as by one supervisor at host university. FEM pays the studentship as well as external fees. There will be plenty of interaction/training/collaboration with other labs both at FEM and abroad, particularly at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

We are ideally looking for a candidate with a MSc in biology, bioinformatics, agriculture or a related discipline. A successful candidate will have a background either in evolutionary biology or bioinformatics, with some programming skills.

Application deadline: 10 January 2012

For more info:

http://www.fmach.eu/UploadDocs/8433_088_ASB_DDS_Profile.pdf

Send your cv and application form to: phd.fem [AT] iasma.it

For (scientific) questions: omar.rota[AT]iasma.it