Postdoctoral researcher with demonstrated experience in bio-informatics and/or molecular biology.
The postdoctoral researcher will team up with a PhD student. The postdoctoral researcher will focus on the bio-informatics component of the project, while the PhD student will focus on lab experiments. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Wageningen Plant Breeding business unit, and is funded by Technology Foundation STW, implying the participation of companies through a “users committee”.
The research deals with fungal pathogens of onion, from the genera Botrytis and Sclerotium, which are difficult to control. Breeding for (partial, quantitative) resistance is hampered by complex infection assays. Recent research on other fungi has highlighted the importance of secreted effector proteins in plant infection. This project aims to identify effector proteins of Botrytis aclada, Botrytis squamosa and Sclerotium cepivorum and study the role of these effectors in host specificity of these three fungi on onion. Effector genes will be identified by a combination of proteomics, comparative genomics and RNAseq analysis and functionally analysed (expression, targeted mutation). Effector proteins will be produced in Pichia pastoris and provided to onion breeders to screen onion genotypes for differences in responses. Effector proteins will serve as tools to breeders for screening germplasm and obtaining molecular markers associated with resistance.