PhD – The plant peptidome: a new layer on plant regulatory mechanisms

CRAG is looking for a PhD student to conduct her/his thesis work on the topic of “The plant peptidome: a new layer on plant regulatory mechanisms”. We seek to incorporate a highly talented and motivated PhD student that is interested in modern, multidisciplinary plant sciences, encompassing experimental and bioinformatic approaches.

Peptides play multiple roles in plants, controlling development and growth or affecting stress responses. However, the genome-wide coding potential of short open reading frames in eukaryotes has been underestimated and overlooked until recently, and the plant peptidome is still largely uncharacterized. We are interested in defining the plant peptidome (sORFs and hidden coding sequences in plant genomes) and in the identification of novel peptides potentially involved in developmental and stress processes, using Arabidopsis and pea as our experimental systems, to eventually develop peptides as a tool for sustainable agriculture.

The successful candidate will participate in, build on, and lead projects for the characterization of the Arabidopsis and pea peptidome and of its roles in flower development and other processes. Research will involve a combination of genomic, proteomic, genetic and cell biology technologies as well as bioinformatic approaches and extensive large-scale data analyses.

The tasks are included within the framework of the research project PID2022-139578NB-I00

For more information about the research group (Principal investigator: Dr. José Luis Riechmann):

http://www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/Jose-Luis-Riechmann-Fernandez-444

https://www.cragenomica.es/research-groups/gene-regulatory-networks-plant-development