[Cnidaria] Hydroid allorecognition project - Postdoctoral opportunities

[Leo Buss]

We are currently seeking two postdoctoral researchers interested in  
the molecular and evolutionary genetics of colonial invertebrate  
allorecognition. Allorecognition phenomena have long captured the  
attention of marine ecologists because they couple the mechanisms and  
outcomes of intraspecific competition, geneticists because of the  
allotypic diversity they support, evolutionary biologists because they  
control the level at which selection acts, and immunologists because  
they resemble the allogeneic interactions that characterize pregnancy  
and transplantation.  Despite their ubiquity in colonial phyla,  
however, the molecular basis of allorecognition has, heretofore, not  
been identified outside the chordates. We have recently succeeded in  
using positional cloning to identify an allorecognition complex  
encoding at least two loci controlling self-not self recognition in  
colonies of the hydroid Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus. Both loci are  
structural complex and encode highly divergent members of the  
immunoglobulin supergene family.

Two projects are available. The first involves functional  
characterization of allorecognition genes and their encoded proteins  
including the isolation of interacting proteins using yeast two-hybrid  
and biochemical methods.  The second position will characterize  
natural structural and sequence variation of the allorecognition  
complex using high-throughput sequencing and genomic techniques. The  
latter project is expected to bear directly on the question of how  
variation in the system arises and is maintained. Opportunities are  
also present to participate in field studies and computational work.
The successful candidates will join a unique research team comprised  
of an invertebrate zoologist (Professor Leo Buss, Yale EEB), a  
molecular geneticist (Stephen Dellaporta. Yale MCDB) and a transplant  
immunologist (Fadi Lakkis, UPMC). The position will be based at Yale.  
Experience with molecular biology, genomics and proteomics is  
required.  These positions are available immediately and will remain  
open until filled. Please send a cover letter outlining the reasoning  
for your interest in the project, a current CV, and contact  
information for 3 professional references to leo.buss at yale .edu

  
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