24/11/2017
We are looking for a new Post-doc: Please feel free to help us distribute the ad to those you think might be interested!
Post doc in Computational Genetics, Uppsala University
The Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University seeks applicants for a 1+1 year Post doc position in Computational Genetics. The starting date is flexible (any time during 2018). Review of applications will start immediately and the position will remain open until a suitable candidate has been found.
The Post-doc will work with the Virginia lines – a chicken population developed during a long-term (60 year) bi-directional, single-trait selection experiment. The adaptive trait is highly polygenic and selection has primarily acted on standing variants available at the onset of selection. In-depth explorations of the adaptive loci have revealed that most are complex with either tightly linked adaptive variants, multiple segregating haplotypes and/or interactions between loci. The major focus of the Post-doc will be to further dissect the genetic architecture of the adaptive trait in and model its contributions to long-term adaptation and individual phenotypes. A newly developed dataset including approximately 4000 phenotyped, pedigreed and individually low-coverage sequenced individuals from a 19 generation deep advanced intercross line between the divergently selected lines is available for this work.
The responsibilities in the Post-doc project includes standard bioinformatics work with short-read sequence data, development of software and pipelines (in R) for haplotyping, genotype imputation and linkage/association analyses to explore the genome-wide genetic basis of the adaptive trait in the deep intercross line. The Post-doc will also be involved in work to develop and explore ways to model and reveal how complex polygenic architectures contribute to long-term selection responses and individual phenotypes.
Candidates for the position must have a Ph.D. by time of employment. A suitable educational background will likely include computational biology/bioinformatics as part of, for example, PhD studies or Post-doctoral work in human/animal/plant quantitative/population/evolutionary genetics, systems biology or equivalent. Interested candidates are encouraged to submit a letter of interest explaining their motivation for working on this project and suitability for the position. This should be accompanied by a C.V. and a description of relevant undergraduate and graduate projects that the applicant has been involved in.
The letter of interest, or any questions about the position, should be directed to Prof. Örjan Carlborg, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University; [email protected]. Review will begin as soon as received and continue until the position is filled.
Selected references of relevance to the project are1-6:
1. Carlborg, Ö., Jacobsson, L., Åhgren, P., Siegel, P. & Andersson, L. Epistasis and the release of genetic variation during long-term selection. Nat Genet 38, 418–420 (2006).
2. Le Rouzic, A., Siegel, P. B. & Carlborg, Ö. Phenotypic evolution from genetic polymorphisms in a radial network architecture. BMC Biol. 5, 50 (2007).
3. Johansson, A. M., Pettersson, M. E., Siegel, P. B. & Carlborg, Ö. Genome-wide effects of long-term divergent selection. PLoS Genet 6, e1001188 (2010).
4. Pettersson, M., Besnier, F., Siegel, P. B. & Carlborg, Ö. Replication and explorations of high-order epistasis using a large advanced intercross line pedigree. PLoS Genet 7, e1002180 (2011).
5. Sheng, Z., Pettersson, M. E., Honaker, C. F., Siegel, P. B. & Carlborg, Ö. Standing genetic variation as a major contributor to adaptation in the Virginia chicken lines selection experiment. Genome Biol. 16, 219 (2015).
6. Zan, Y. et al. Artificial Selection Response due to Polygenic Adaptation from a Multilocus, Multiallelic Genetic Architecture. Mol Biol Evol 34, 2678–2689 (2017).
