Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term)

We are looking for an enthusiastic postdoctoral Research Assistant / Research Associate to join the Kromdijk lab to study chilling responses in maize.

Maize is an important global food, feedstock and bioenergy crop. Maize was domesticated by ancient farmers in Mexico approximately 9000 years ago and is one of the most susceptible crops to chilling stress amongst those grown in temperate regions. As a result, maize yields at higher latitudes are limited by a relatively short growing season and maize is sensitive to yield losses due to early and late season cold snaps. Chilling stress in maize is most common at the start of the growing season, where it leads to poor establishment, which decreases maize ability to efficiently capture light, compete with weeds and take up nitrogen fertilizer. In addition, chilling stress decreases general plant health and enhances susceptibility to plant pathogens. While later planting dates would decrease the prevalence of chilling stress, sustainable farm management increasingly focuses on early harvest (which necessitates early sowing) to allow sufficient growing time for cover crops at the season's end to minimize nitrogen leaching.

Altogether, understanding maize chilling stress is clearly important for improving yield security and sustainability of maize cultivation. However, despite decades of research efforts, a full mechanistic understanding of chilling sensitivity in maize is still lacking. Recent work in the Kromdijk group found that root-specific chilling already creates significant damage and downregulation of photosynthesis at mild chilling temperatures at which plants can safely tolerate whole-plant chilling. These results suggest that chilling stress symptoms under field conditions could reflect both maize' poor capacity to cope with low temperature per se, but also with cool temperature of roots relative to shoots.

The advertised role will perform experiments to deconvolute the impact and underlying mechanisms of whole plant chilling and root-specific chilling in maize by focusing on the following objectives:

1. Define damage and plant survival under root-chilling and whole-plant chilling treatments.
2. Combine maize grafting with a reverse genetic approach to determine:
3. a) the role of abscisic acid (ABA) synthesis and perception.
4. b) the role of photoinhibition in chilling stress.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 3 years in the first instance.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click the 'Apply' button above. 

Please notice that if you have not received any news from us 1 month after the closing date you should consider that on this occasion your application has not been successful.

Please quote reference PD45325 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

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