Research Fellow (109920-1124)

Funding is available for an FA6 role for up to 36 months; the duration may need to be shortened to 34 months depending on the starting salary of the successful candidate., A Research Fellow position is available in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick to work on cutting-edge science in the field of Plant Hormone Signalling. This is a full time post funded by BBSRC for 3 years to start as soon as possible. The project title is "The auxin degron: a necessary twist for plant life?"

KEYWORDS: - Auxin receptor; intrinsic disorder; protein conformation; Signalling; Plant hormone; NMR and molecular dynamics; Structure/function.

What scientific question will you investigate? / Outline of the project aims

The successful applicant will be based in the Laboratory of Professor Richard Napier. The postholder will combine molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and proteomics, with NMR spectroscopy in the lab of Prof Jozef Lewandowski (Chemistry) and other assays as well as plant physiology to identify the key to the heart of auxin signalling. Our experiments will be aligned with molecular dynamic simulations being run by Prof Charo del Genio (Bulgaria). We will determine the roles of conserved but disordered sequences in and around the auxin degron, discover cis-acting regulators of auxin mediated signalling and determine the molecular drivers behind the emergence of herbicide resistance-conferring mutations. The work will provide a knowledge-rich rationale for the stewardship of synthetic auxins which contribute to global food security as selective herbicides.

About the research group

The Napier group share a suite of labs with other molecular plant science groups in the School of Life Sciences at the University's biomedical campus, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry. In this project we will make use of facilities in the Bioanalytical Shared Research laboratories, including SPR for auxin binding assays and the School's tissue culture facilities for expressing proteins of interest using the baculovirus system. The project is co-led by Prof Jozef Lewandowski for NMR and by Prof Charo del Genio for Molecular Dynamics simulations.