The Jones Lab

Pollen count is high in Corvallis.  Andy talks pollen evolution to Oregon Public Broadcasting

Dusty Gannon’s work on Heliconia is highlighted in this blog post

Dusty has a paper that has just been published in the “Scientific Naturalist” section of Ecology. Read it here.  Well done, Dusty and all!

Tyler Schappe successfully defended is M.S. thesis in August.  Congratulations Tyler!

Nate Swenson and Andy coedited a Special Feature in the Journal of Ecology that has just been published.  You can read a blog post we wrote about it here.  The issue features a paper by MS student Tyler Schappe and postdoc Felipe Albornoz.

As fall quarter looms, we welcome two new lab members.  Felipe Albornoz joins us as a postdoctoral scholar. Felipe completed his Ph.D. in at Western Austrualia and will be working on the interactions between oomycetes and trees in the Wind River plot in Southern Washington.

Dusty Gannon is a new Ph.D. student and NSF fellow who completed his B.S. at Colorado State. Dusty is planning to work on the Heliconia pollination project in Costa Rica.

Welcome Dusty and Felipe!

Kristen Finch was interviewed by Mongabay about her research.  Read it here.

Summer is in full swing in the lab.  Kristen is at a genetics workshop in New Mexico, Tyler is doing field work at Wind River forest in Washington, and Andy will present research results at the ATBC meeting in Montpellier, France, mentor students and scientists at the CTFS Analytical Workshop in Hainan, China, and visit field sites in Panama.

Zalamea et al. just published an article in the New Phytologist on tropical seedling responses to phosphorus.  You can read the article here.  Well done all.

Postdoctoral Position in Plant Oomycete Pathogen interactions at Oregon State University

A postdoctoral scholar position to apply genomic approaches to understanding the ecology and evolution of oomycete pathogens and their plant hosts is open in the laboratory of Drs. Andy Jones, Nik Grunwald, and Brett Tyler at Oregon State University.  The NSF-funded Dimensions of Biodiversity project is entitled “Dynamical interactions between plant and oomycete biodiversity in a temperate forest”. The overarching goal of the project is to examine the role of native oomycete plant pathogens in maintaining tree species diversity in an old growth forest in the Pacific Northwest. Oomycetes, or water molds, are highly destructive plant pathogens, well known for causing the Irish potato famine and sudden oak death. Though known as agricultural pathogens, oomycetes are diverse organisms that are native to and abundant in many forest ecosystems. However, less is known about the ecological roles that oomycete pathogens play in natural forest ecosystems. This project will examine three dimensions of oomycete and plant interactions: (i) document the oomycete species present in the Wind River forest in Washington, (ii) determine the functional ability of each oomycete species to infect or limit the growth and survival of abundant and rare plant species in the forest, and (iii) use genetics and genomics to determine how oomycetes adapt to different plant hosts. A particular focus will be on the role of endemic broad host range oomycetes, and how their interactions with dominant and less abundant host plants may differ.

Research will involve field collection of samples (plant and oomycetes), and lab work including genotyping and genome sequencing using Illumina techniques, data assembly and annotation, and population genetic and genomic analyses.  The applicant will work closely with the project PIs, graduate and undergraduate students, and technicians and will be responsible for project coordination in the lab and field, analyzing results, writing manuscripts, and contributing to the development of research approaches and directions.

The applicant is required to have a recent relevant Ph.D. in the biological sciences related to population genetics, ecology and/or evolution, with expertise in the lab and field.  Required skills include experimental design and knowledge of population genetics. Experience with R, python, or other programming environments is required. No prior postdoctoral experience is required. The position will be renewed annually, dependent upon achieving project goals.  The position is based at Oregon State University with fieldwork in Southern Washington state. Therefore, the position requires a willingness and ability to travel for extended periods of time.

To be considered for this position, send as a single pdf, a CV, copies of up to three relevant publications, a cover letter that includes future professional interests, and the names and contact information for three references to jonesfr@science.oregonstate.edu.  Please include “Oomycete Plant Interaction Postdoc” in the subject header.  Informal inquiries are welcome at the same address.  More information can be found at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/joneslab/.

Review of applications will begin February 21 and will continue until the position is filled.