There is an open PhD-position in metabarcoding at the Tromsø University Museum. The PhD position will be connected to two ongoing projects. 1) The Norwegian Barcode of Life (NorBOL): Development of DNA barcodes for vascular plants through low coverage shotgun sequencing of genomic DNA and assemblage of whole plastid DNA genomes, nuclear rDNA and large parts of mitochondrial genome. 2) The After Ice DNA Metabarcoding project (see http://en.uit.no/ansatte/inger.g.alsos) explores the occurrence of boreal species at northern latitudes by ancient DNA analyses using the P6 loop of the plastid DNA trnL (UUA) intron. Lake sediments have been collected at key sites for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in Norway and Svalbard.

The PhD candidate will bridge these projects by developing laboratory and bioinformatic tools to apply shotgun sequencing on the ancient samples. This will provide valuable data which the candidate will use to explore effects of past climate change on e.g. species turnover, dispersal, extinction, and phylogenetic diversity. In both projects, we collaborate with colleges at the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, who run similar projects focused on the Alps, and the candidate is expected to spend a 3-6 month research stay there.

See: http://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/110289/phd-candidate-in-metabarcoding-at-tromsoe-university-museum