Job offer for an Engineer Position in Plant Physiology (F/M)

Context
As part of the "High-Risk Research" program EXPLOR'AE, entrusted to INRAE under France 2030, the SETAVAC project has been funded. A 12-month fixed-term Engineer position in plant physiology is available within the "Carbon, Allocation, Transport and Signaling" CATS team at INRAE IJPB in Versailles, France.

Responsibilities
> Objective: Identify and functionally characterize vacuolar sugar transporters involved in responses to elevated CO2 (eCO2) in Setaria viridis and Setaria italica.
> Analysis: Work with photosynthetic activity and transcriptomic data.
The selected candidate will contribute to the SETAVAC project and perform the following tasks:
1. Cultivate Setaria plants and sample leaves under ambient CO2 (aCO2) and elevated CO2 (eCO2) conditions.
2. Perform tissue inclusion and laser microdissection of mesophyll and bundle sheath cells, followed by RNA extraction and purification.
3. Analyze transcriptomic data to select candidate sugar transporter genes.
4. Conduct functional analyses of candidate genes using yeast heterologous systems.
Additional tasks include:
>  Performing statistical analyses and creating visual representations of the results.
>  Writing reports in English.

Required Skills
Education
Master’s degree or equivalent in biology/plant physiology
Technical Skills
> Data analysis and statistical expertise
> Proficiency in using R for data analysis
Personal Skills
> Strong motivation and curiosity
> Teamwork and autonomy

Work Environment
The IJPB unit conducts research across various areas of plant biology. The CATS team focuses on sugar allocation in plants in the context of climate change, particularly the role of vacuolar sugar transporters in modulating photosynthetic activity under elevated CO2 conditions.

Références
> Aubry E, Clément G, Gilbault E, Loudet O, Dinant S and Le Hir R. (2024). Changes in SWEET-mediated sugar partitioning affect photosynthesis performance and plant response to drought. Physiologia Plantarum, 176 (6): e14623, https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.14623
> Valifard M, Khan A, Berg J, Le Hir R, Pommerrenig B, Neuhaus H.E, Keller I (2024). Carbohydrate distribution via SWEET17 is critical for Arabidopsis inflorescence branching under drought. Journal of Experimental Botany, erae135, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae135
> Hoffmann B, Aubry E, Marmagne A, Dinant S, Chardon F and Le Hir R* (2022). Impairment of sugar transport in the vascular system acts on nitrogen remobilization and nitrogen use efficiency in Arabidopsis. Physiologia Plantarum, 174 (6): e13830, https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.13830
> Aubry E, Hoffmann B, Vilaine F, Gilard F, Klemens P, Guérard F, Gakière B, Neuhaus HE, Bellini C, Dinant S, Le Hir R* (2022). A vacuolar hexose transport is required for xylem development in the inflorescence stem. Plant Physiology, 188 (2), 1229-1247, https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiab551

Research developed at the Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin for Plant Sciences.