Three PhD Positions on Zombie-Making Fungi and Their Insect Hosts

Reminiscent of zombies in pop culture, some (fungal) parasites hijack and change host behaviours. Parasites use this behavioural manipulation strategy to improve transmission from one host to the next. Our molecular understanding of this phenomenon is very limited. To increase our knowledge, our lab received a Consolidator Award from the European Research Council to further develop the so-called “zombie ants” into a model system. These ants are infected by Ophiocordyceps fungi, which cause summit disease.

The upcoming project will use fungal and insect genetics techniques to better understand the molecular mechanisms that underly Ophiocordyceps-ant interactions that result in parasite adaptive behaviour. In other words: we want to understand what fungal proteins do to ant behavioural pathways that result in manipulated/altered behaviours. This means that the project is highly integrative and combines fungal and insect genetics with behaviour and transcriptomics. Ambitious, but great for creative, motivated students who have experience in and a good working knowledge of at least one of these research fields and are interested to learn others. Do you feel like we describe you? Then consider to apply!

As part of the team you would be integrating techniques from several biological disciplines:
apply fungal and insect genetics technology to study the function of candidate manipulation compounds;
produce and analyse transcriptomics datasets to reveal host pathways involved in altered behaviours;
work with a variety of invertebrate host organisms ranging from established model systems to ant colonies collected from nature;
design behavioural setups and use quantitative tracking software, coupled with statistical analyses to study behavioural phenotypes;
participate in yearly field expeditions to Florida (USA) to collect ant colonies.