Post-doc in Molecular genetics of tomato mineral nutrient status

The recent approval by the European Parliament of new legislation to allow application of gene editing approaches in plant breeding, offers new opportunities to address this. One such challenge is to improve complex traits such as crop tolerance to dynamic environmental conditions in the current era of global climate change and how to best incorporate this in plant breeding strategies.

Anticipating the new legislation, the INPROBED project has been granted, which aims to precisely identify and modify cis-regulatory elements and transcription factor genes that control key physiological pathways to specifically adjust targeted gene expression to reshape complex traits.

The project will develop a breakthrough science-enabled technology platform to improve tomato heat, drought and nutrient deficiency tolerance and the nutritional status of tomato fruits for human health. In this project, you will investigate the tomato response to Zn and Fe deficiency and design strategies to improve the Zn/Fe nutritional status of tomatoes for human health.

You will generate dedicated (single-cell) transcriptional data sets feeding into the MNase-defined cistrome occupancy (MOA-seq) analysis of transcription factor binding of tomato promoter elements controlling the Zn and Fe deficiency responsive gene expression. You will design specific constructs to edit transcription factor genes and their target promoters, and analyse the effects of optimized gene expression regulation on plant performance under optimal and field-like conditions at the Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre. Your research aims to improve tomato Zn and Fe uptake under regular field conditions and to enhance the Zn and Fe nutritional status of tomato fruits.

INPROBED is part of the prestigious European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Challenge programme addressing innovative biotechnology for climate resilient crops. It brings together excellent expertise from world-leading European research institutions and companies. You will work closely together with researchers across the consortium to predict and edit targeted gene promoters, to design relevant constructs for gene editing and to evaluate the gene-edited plants to establish this topic firmly into the plant breeding domain.

Within Wageningen University, you will be embedded in the Laboratory of Genetics of the Plant Sciences Group, and collaborate with researchers and thesis students investigating the genetic basis of plant adaptation to the environment, focusing on plant nutrition, metal tolerance and photosynthesis. Your research is expected to deliver fundamental insights into the genetic regulation of tomato gene expression and provide strong experimental validation of the technology platform to improve complex crop traits through gene editing of gene expression regulators.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• To design the experimental setup for gene expression analysis of tomato response to Zn and Fe deficiency, and of Zn and Fe loading into the developing fruit.
• The biological interpretation of MOA-seq analysis with respect to the tomato response to Zn and Fe deficiency.
• The experimental validation of gene-edited tomato plants with respect to plant growth and development and their ionome under optimal, natural and mineral-stress conditions.
• To establish a fruitful collaboration with international partners in the project and to supervise a part-time technician on the project.
• To write manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals reporting on the results of your research.

You will work with international partners in the project and with other members in the Botanical Genetics team of the Laboratory of Genetics of Wageningen University, which is led by

You will work in close collaboration with a technician to be appointed on the project.

You will work here
Wageningen UR has a global reputation for its ground-breaking research and innovative education in the fields of food and health, sustainable agrosystems, the rural environment, and societal development - all of which make an essential contribution to the quality of life, i.e. the supply of safe and healthy food and drink, on the one hand, and the chance to live, work and play in a balanced ecosystem with a large variety of plants and animals on the other. Within Wageningen UR, the Plant Sciences Group brings together science education and scientific, strategic and applied research in the fields of biology, of plants in relation to their environment, of plant-related organisms and of plant production. The Laboratory of Genetics is interested in heredity in general, in particular the origin, architecture and consequences of genetic variation of a wide range of organisms across the biological kingdoms.