Graduate position: Genomics of speciation in the house mouse, Montpellier, France

PhD Research project
Genomics of speciation in the house mouse
We invite applications for a PhD research project on the *genomics of speciation in the house mouse*, Montpellier, France.

The PhD project will be part of a French Research Council ANR-funded project which involves scientists from the UK, USA and France and which addresses the mechanisms of sexual isolation between the two European subspecies of the house mouse. The student will more specifically look at the genetic basis of adaptive sexual isolation by developing population genomics approaches which will make use of next generation sequencing and associated high throughput methods (see references below).
We seek for a highly-motivated student with a strong interest in evolutionary biology and evolutionary genetics, and curiosity for the field of speciation research. Experience in molecular lab techniques would be an advantage, and skills in or interest for bioinformatics/programming would be a plus. Through this topic highly tuned towards key questions in evolutionary biology and cutting edge genomic techniques, the PhD candidate will have a unique opportunity to acquire important skills and gain experience in this fast-evolving field of research.
Project key words: speciation, natural and sexual selection, population genomics, assortative mating, genomics of adaptation, genomics of complex behaviours, Next Generation Sequencing, house mouse.
The PhD candidate will be based at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology - CNRS, Montpellier and will be supervised by Dr. Carole Smadja and Dr. Pierre Boursot.
The Institute for Evolutionary Biology is a world-leading centre for excellence in evolutionary biology and is part of dynamic network of research departments which participate to the outstanding scientific environment in biodiversity research in Montpellier.
Criteria of eligibility : candidates must be citizen of a country member of the European Union or must have been awarded a Master degree or equivalent in a EU country or one of the following EU Partner countries : Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, Iceland, Norway, Roumania, Swissland, Turkey and Vatican. Applicants must hold a Master degree or equivalent.

Application :
To apply, please send a complete CV, letter of motivation, names of 2 referees as a single pdf file to carole.smadja@univ-montp2.fr or Pierre.boursot@univ-montp2.fr
Deadline for application: **7 June 2011**.
Candidates are strongly encouraged to make informal contact with Carole Smadja by email before this deadline in order to get important information about the application procedure.
Short-listed candidates will be invited for an interview in Montpellier, France, 4 - 8 July 2011.
References from the research group related to the project:
Boursot, P. et al., 1993. The Evolution of House Mice. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 24(1), pp.119-152.
Boursot, P. et al., 1996. Origin and radiation of the house mouse: mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 9(4), pp.391-415.
Smadja, C. & Ganem, G. 2002 Subspecies recognition in the house mouse: a study of two populations from the border of a hybrid zone. Behavioral Ecology 13, 312-320.
Smadja, C., Catalan, J. & Ganem, G. 2004 Strong premating divergence in a unimodal hybrid zone between two subspecies of the house mouse. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17, 165-176.
Raufaste, N., Orth, A., Belkhir, K., Senet, D., Smadja, C., Baird, S. J. E., Bonhomme, F., Dod, B. & Boursot, P. 2005 Inference of selection and migration in the danish house mouse hybrid zone. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 84, 593-616.
Smadja, C. & Ganem, G. 2005 Asymmetrical reproductive character displacement in the house mouse. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18, 1485-1493.
Smadja, C. & Ganem, G. 2008 Divergence of odorant signals within and between the two European subspecies of the house mouse. Behavioral Ecology 19, 223-230.
Stapley, J., Reger, J., Feulner, P. G., Smadja, C., Galindo, J., Ekblom, R., Bennison, C., Ball, A. D., Beckerman, A. P. & Slate, J. 2010 Adaptation Genomics: the next generation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

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Dr. Carole Smadja
CNRS researcher
Chargée de recherche CNRS
http://www.carole-smadja.staff.shef.ac.uk/
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Institut des Sciences de l¹Evolution
cc065, Université Montpellier 2
34095 Montpellier
France
Phone: +33 (0)4 67 14 92 70