Postdoc in pollination and plant reproductive biology

Plants are evolving in response to abiotic and biotic factors, including insect pollinators. Under climate change we can expect several of these factors to change with consequences for natural selection in wild plant populations. Knowledge about how climate change will affect such eco-evolutionary interactions is of fundamental importance, but also holds applied relevance given its direct link to crop pollination services.

At disposal to the postdoc will be

1. a replicated common garden with almost 200 sequenced strawberry genotypes collected from across Europe, and
2. five smaller common gardens with a subset of these plants located in Finland, Sweden, Belgium, and Spain. The five common gardens are designed to form a space-for time experiment for studying effects of climate (i.e. latitude and precipitation) on e.g. pollinator-mediated natural selection on plant traits.

We know that these woodland strawberry genotypes show genetic variation in many traits incl. anti-herbivore defense, flower phenology, frost tolerance, and runner production. The plant genotypes also seem to vary in other traits of relevance for reproductive biology, incl. floral morphology (e.g. stamen length), relative investment to flowers and runners, and selfing potential. The traits to focus on will be decided by the recruited postdoc in dialogue with mentors and other project members.

Read more and apply here.