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| Comparative genomics to study the evolution of loss of complexity | |||||||||||||
A 4-year Studentship is offered at UCL as part of the Darwin School for Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution. This is a new collaborative venture between UCL, Imperial College, the Institute of Zoology, the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The successful candidate will have access to the resources, facilities and collections of these institutions. In the first year of study, the student will be enrolled in the UCL Systems Biology MRes programme. This provides a research-intensive programme of taught courses and hands-on training in the principles of systems biology, advanced biological modelling, quantitative approaches and research skills along with two research projects. For further details see: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/systems-biology/graduate-training. The student will then progress to the main PhD project as follows: Comparative genomics to study the evolution of loss of complexity While organisms have generally increased in complexity through evolutionary time, many instances are known in which characteristics have been lost in different lineages. The project will use bioinformatic approaches to study newly available genome sequence data from two evolutionarily pivotal animals, the priapulid worm Priapulus caudatus and the deuterostome Xenoturbella bocki. Both fruitflies and nematodes have lost a significant proportion of genes present in other animal groups. This may be related to changes in morphology and also to the evolution of the rapid developmental programs seen in these species. Priapulus is an Ecdysozoan related to arthropods and nematodes, yet has been shown to have a slowly evolving genome compared to these taxa. Comparisons of the conservatively evolving Priapulus genome with those of model organism may give an insight into the link between morphological evolution and changes in the tempo of genome evolution. In a similar vein, Xenoturbella is a deuterostome related to echinoderms and vertebrates yet it has lost typical deuterostome characters such as gill slits and a through gut. Genome comparisons will shed light on the genetic basis for such differences. The project will be co-supervised by Prof Jürg Bähler. Further information: contact: m.telford@ucl.ac.uk. Expressions of interest with a covering letter, CV, and names and contact details of two referees should be sent as soon as possible to Prof Max Telford (m.telford@ucl.ac.uk). In addition, a formal application should be submitted to UCL admissions: see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/admission/graduate-study/application-admission/apply-online/. Studentships will start in Sept. 2010 and provide a stipend and tuition fees for 4 years of study. Funding Notes The Studentship is available to all UK/EU applicants who satisfy the requirements of ‘home/EU’ student status. For further details see: http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/tuition_fees_ewni.php# |
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