Postdoctoral Research Assistant

[Stephen Harris]

Postdoctoral Research Assistant:

This is a 2-year post in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of
Oxford, funded by The Leverhulme Trust with a planned start date of 1st
October 2000. The grant holders are Dr. C.E. Hughes and Dr. S.A. Harris and
the successful applicant will work under their immediate direction.

The overall objective of the research project is to investigate the role of
spontaneous interspecific hybridisation in the indigenous domestication of
species of Leucaena used as food plants in Mexico. Specifically, the aim of
the post-doctoral position is to develop and screen species-diagnostic
molecular markers to investigate the hybridity, origins and identities of a
set of putative interspecific hybrids and tetraploid species. It is
anticipated that a range of markers, including RAPDs and AFLPs along with
generation of sequence-characterised amplified regions (SCARs) to simplify
marker characterisation, will be needed to understand fully the identities
of the more complex hybrids. The project provides an exciting opportunity to
investigate hybridisation in a tropical woody plant group for which
comprehensive well-documented seed, dried leaf, DNA, and botanical
collections are available, as well as existing rDNA and cpDNA RFLP, ITS and
morphological data sets. The project aims to integrate results from these
hybrid studies with data from existing and on-going field and ethnobotanical
survey and mapping work in south-central Mexico to gain insights into
processes of indigenous domestication. There is an opportunity within the
project for the successful applicant to visit Mexico and participate in
field work there.

Further details and application procedures may be found at:
http://www.plants.ox.ac.uk/jobs/PRA13.html


Stephen A. Harris
Department of Plant Sciences,
University of Oxford,
South Parks Road,
Oxford
OX1 3RB

Tel. No. (01865) 275112
Fax. No. (01865) 275074