MiCRop Culture Collection “Microbial Imprinting for Crop Resilience”.

Project description:
MiCRop is national research program aiming to harness the functional potential of root microbes as a new platform for improved stress resilience of future crops and sustainable food production. Plants recruit and nurture billions of microbes on their roots. In return, the root microbiome supports the plant by improving the uptake of nutrients, enhancing tolerance to environmental stress and providing protection against pests and diseases. MiCRop will unlock how plants under stress recruit these beneficial root microbes. We will harness the yet unknown plant and microbial traits that facilitate this interaction, and translate their potential for the development of next generation, stress-resilient crops that require less fertilizers and pesticides.

One of the goals of the MiCRop program is to build large culture collection of root-associated bacteria and to phenotype and genotype these isolates. Pure microbial isolates will be shared with all MiCRop partners for dedicated validation experiments.
 

Applicants should have experience in microbiology. We are particularly looking for candidates with experience with the high-throughput isolation, purification and characterization of bacteria and fungi from soil and root environments and with storing and maintaining culture collection and microbial databases. Experience with genomic DNA isolation, sequencing library preparation and genome analyses is also desired.

The position is a temporary appointment for 1 year (0.8 FTE) with the possibility for extension with an additional 2 years. The preferred starting date is 15 January 2022. Depending on your experience, the maximum gross salary is € 3.196 per month on fulltime basis (scale 7) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities, excluding 8% vacation allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus.

Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO)

The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. It conducts ecological research on land, in the ocean and in fresh water and studies how living organisms interact with one another and their environment. NIOO stimulates biodiversity and sustainability in nature and society through its worldwide network of researchers, policymakers, conservationists and other stakeholders.

The applicant will be hosted by the Department of Microbial Ecology of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) located in Wageningen and by the Plant-Microbe Interactions group at Utrecht University.