Multiple Ph.D. positions in Ecological/Evolutionary Diversification. Ph.D. positions are available in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at USC to join a collaborative project on the evolutionary diversification of photosynthesis in Cryptophytes. Cryptophytes are a widespread group of algae that have a unique and unusually diverse class of photosynthetic pigments (the cryptophyte phycobilins), potentially allowing them to thrive in diverse light environments. Their evolutionary history suggests frequent shifts in the light spectra for which their pigments are specialized. Furthermore, cryptophytes are the product of an ancient secondary endosymbiosis, with nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from an ancestral host, and plastid and nucleomorph genomes from a red algal symbiont. Functional phycobilins require genes from both ancestors, necessitating the evolution of intergenomic cooperation.
Ph.D. candidates will join a project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation for five years that is aimed at linking variation of spectral irradiance to cryptophyte diversity in environments from ponds to oceans. Ph.D. projects may draw on fieldwork, biogeography, physiological experiments, phylogenomics, molecular evolution, experimental evolution, comparative transcriptomics, and/or phylogenetic comparative analyses. The project is a collaboration between Dr. Tammi Richardson (richardson [at] biol.sc.edu) and Dr. Jeff Dudycha (dudycha [at] biol.sc.edu). Prospective students may contact either Richardson or Dudycha. We anticipate at least one graduate student will join the Richardson lab with a focus on physiological ecology, and at least one graduate student will join the Dudycha lab with a focus on evolutionary biology. More information about our labs can be found at http://www.msci.sc.edu/perl and http://www.biol.sc.edu/~dudycha . Information on the graduate program in biology at USC can be found at http://www.biol.sc.edu/graduate. Note that the deadline for application is January 1st. However, we strongly encourage prospective graduate students to contact one or both of us well before then. The Dudycha lab is also looking to recruit individuals interested in either the ecological diversification of vision, or the role of mutation in the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. ******************************************* Jeffry L. Dudycha Associate Professor Dept. of Biological Sciences University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 dudycha [at] biol.sc.edu http://www.biol.sc.edu/~dudycha *******************************************
