Post-doc position available (starting immediately)

There is a post-doc position available in my research group in Ireland.

The position is to continue our work on the origins and early evolution of eukaryotes.  In this case, we are going to dig into the metabolism of early eukaryotes.  We will spend time trying to reconstruct ancestral metabolisms, analysing the origins of eukaryote-specific genes to see how old they are and looking at the eukaryote-prokaryote divide.

This is a very exciting time in this area of research, since we have an unprecedented amount of “omics” information available to us and we can use this information to infer ancient events.

Ideally, I would like to speak with people with the following skills:

– Good knowledge of unix

– Python or PERL programming ability

– Good knowledge of phylogeny reconstruction

– Good knowledge of bioinformatics (database searching, alignment, etc.)

– An interest in deep evolutionary questions.

You can apply for the job here: JOB ADVERTISEMENT

Recent publications from the lab in this area:

  • Nelson-Sathi S., Sousa F.L., Roettger M., Lozada-Chávez N., Thiergart T., Janssen A., Bryant D., Landan G., Schönheit P., Siebers B., McInerney J.O., Martin W.F., (2015) Origins of major archaeal clades correspond to gene acquisitions from bacteria. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature13805. [pdf]
  • McInerney, J.O., O’Connell, M.J., and Pisani, D. (2014) The hybrid nature of the Eukaryota and a consilient view of life on Earth. Nature Reviews Microbiology 12(6):449-455. doi:10.1038/nrmicro3271.
  • Bogumil, D., Alvarez-Ponce, D., Landan, G., McInerney, J.O. and Dagan, T. (2014) Integration of two ancestral chaperone systems into one: the evolution of eukaryotic molecular chaperones in light of eukaryogenesis. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31(2) 410-418. [pdf]
  • McInerney, J.O. (2013) More than Tree Dimensions: inter-lineage evolution’s ecological importance. Trends in Ecology and Evolution28(11) 624-625. [pdf]
  • Alvarez-Ponce, D., Lopez, P., Bapteste, E. and McInerney, J.O. (2013). Gene similarity networks provide new tools for understanding eukaryote origins and evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110(17): E1594-603. [pdf]
  • Nelson-Sathi, S., Dagan, T., Landan, G., Janssen, A., Steel, M., McInerney, J. O., Deppenmeier, U., and Martin, W.F. (2012) Acquisition of 1,000 eubacterial genes physiologically transformed a methanogen at the origin of Haloarchaea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 109 (50) 20537-20542, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1209119109.[pdf]
  • Feuda, R., Hamilton, S.C., McInerney, J.O. and Pisani, D. (2012) Metazoan opsin evolution reveals a simple route to animal vision. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 109:(46) 18868-18872, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1204609109 [pdf]
  • Bapteste, E., Bouchard F., Baquero F., McInerney J.O., Lopez P. and Burian R.M. (2012). Evolutionary analyses of non-genealogical bonds produced by introgressive descent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 109:(45) 18266-18272 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1206541109 [pdf].
  • Alvarez-Ponce, D. and McInerney, J.O. (2011) The Human genome retains relics of its prokaryotic ancestry: human genes of archaebacterial and eubacterial origin exhibit remarkable differences. Genome Biology and Evolution vol. 3, pp. 782-790  [pdf]
  • McInerney, J.O., Martin, W.F., Koonin, E.V., Allen, J.F., Galperin, M.Y., Lane, N., Archibald, J.M., and Embley, T.M. (2011) Planctomycetes and eukaryotes: a case of analogy not homology. BioEssays 33:(11) 810-817. doi: 10.1002/bies.201100045. [link] [pdf]
  • Cotton, J.A., and McInerney, J.O. (2010) Eukaryotic genes of archaebacterial origin are more important than the more numerous eubacterial genes, irrespective of function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 107:40 17252-17255. [link]. See also, Logsdon, J.M. (2010) Eukaryotic Evolution: The Importance of Being Archaebacterial. Current Biology, 20:24, R1078-R1079.pdf

 

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