As part of the €10M EU project ‘Holoruminant’ this PhD project will investigate the natural microbiomes found in and on ruminants to investigate their ecological and evolutionary importance to the health and efficiency of the host. The project will utilise cutting edge DNA sequencing and computational analyses technologies to understand how the ‘hologenome’ of ruminants arose and the strategies that they have evolved as part of this unique relationship.
“HoloRuminant: Understanding microbiomes of the ruminant holobiont” is a £8 million H2020 innovation action consisting of 25 international partners which aims to characterise the acquisition and evolution of ruminant microbiomes from different body sites, their inheritability and their influence on the host’s resistance to disease and environmental efficiency of production.
Specifically, HoloRuminant will: determine microbiomes’ functions by combining multi-level information for microbes, host and their interaction; define microbiomes’ roles during challenging life periods such as perinatal, weaning, and after exposure to pathogens; and evaluate the effect of ruminant microbiomes on critical phenotypes for sustainable production, health and welfare.
This project will bring together existing multi-body-site meta-taxonomic and metagenomic microbial data from ruminants with novel host and microbiome omics data generated by partners in the project (referred to as “holo-omics approach”). Primarily focusing on faeces, respiratory tract, skin and rumen microbiomes, we will investigate microbial species and isolates and functions associated with host breed, health, efficiency and environmental emissions. This will lead to the generation and publication of a centralised resource of microbial taxonomic and genomic associations with host phenotypes across multiple body sites in ruminants.
We will then use this information to identify the key ecological relationships and evolutionary innovations in these microbial communities that have led to their unique association and importance to ruminants.
More information about the project can be found at: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101000213 and about other research in the Creevey lab at: http://creeveylab.org
Supervisors: Professor Chris Creevey and Professor Sharon Huws (Queen's University School of Biological Sciences)
Start Date: As soon as possible (summer 2022 at latest)
Duration: 4 years
Specific skills required: Desirable skills include a background in microbiology, bioinformatics or computational biology, but training will be provided as necessary during the project.
Anticipated Interview Date: Mid-February 2022
How to apply: https://dap.qub.ac.uk/portal/user/u_login.php
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