Temporary position OT-27436
Plant-microbiote modeling
06903 Sophia Antipolis
INRAE presentation
The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.
Work environment, missions and activities
You will be working at the ISA unit, an international research institute funded by INRAE, Université Côte d'Azur and CNRS. Situated at the interface of Environment and Agriculture, the main research topics concern the study of interactions between plant, pathogens and symbionts and their dynamics in time and space. The postdoctoral fellow will join the M2P2 team which develops theoretical approaches to unravel agroecosystems functioning and design new plant protection methods. The postdoctoral fellow will be working closely with the MACBES team based nearby (Inria, INRAE, CNRS and Université Côte d'Azur), as well as with Simon Labarthe (INRAE/Inria, PLEIADE team), who is based in Bordeaux.
Scientific context : Soil microbial communities have been shown to provide a wide range of host services such as indirect pathogen protection, stress tolerance and nutrient uptake.
The composition of plant-associated microbial communities (and thus the functions that they can provide) is the result of complex interactions among the host, the microbes and the environment. Plant exudation, i.e. the excretion of inorganic and organic molecules from living tissue, is thought to influence the structure of microbial communities, providing substrates and signals for specific classes of microbes. In particular, under biotic and abiotic stress conditions, plants modify their exudation patterns, inducing major shifts in their associated microbial community, possibly as a part of a stress-adaptation program.
The aim of this postdoctoral position is to investigate the interaction between plant exudates and community composition using a modeling approach that explicitly couples plant physiology and microbial population dynamics.
The successful candidate will benefit from data available in the lab, including plant phenotyping (growth, photosynthesis, transpiration, etc.), ionomics, root exudate metabolomics and soil microbial counts under both control and stress conditions.
The postdoctoral fellow will be in charge of:
- refining the description of exudation dynamics in an existing model of plant physiology, based on available data
- develop a phenomenological model of the microbial community under control and stress conditions
analyze the dynamics of the coupled system and investigate the impact of plant physiology (photosynthesis, growth, exudation etc) on microbial abundance and community composition
Particular conditions of activity : full time. The hired candidate will share his/her time between ISA-M2P2 and MACBES team (Inria Sophia-Antipolis).
Training and skills
- Recommended training: PhD degree in applied mathematics or theoretical ecology
- Required skills: experience in dynamical systems, parameter inference, data analysis, programming
- Desired skills: a first experience in applications of mathematics to life sciences will be an advantage.
INRAE's life quality
By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):
- up to 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.
How to apply
I send my CV and my motivation letter
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