We are looking for a postdoc to work on the project 'Genomics of
eco-evolutionary dynamics in the spruce bark beetle'. The main objective of
the project is to address several hypotheses about the nature of rapid
adaptation by analyzing changes in allele frequencies and inversion
haplotypes over time in different populations of the spruce bark beetle.
Our international team is based at the Institute of Environmental Sciences
at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland).

We are looking for a person with a strong interest in evolution, molecular
ecology, population genomics as well as experience in bioinformatics;
proven experience in working with NGS data and their multi-step analysis
(experience in pool-seq analysis preferred); strong English language,
communication and organizational skills. The position is for 3 years (after
successful probation) and the salary is 140k PLN/year before tax.

If interested, please send a cover letter explaining your background,
skills, and interest in the project, CV, and contact information of two
academics willing to provide references to Dr. Krystyna Nadachowska-Brzyska
(krystyna.nadachowska@uj.edu.pl).

Review of applications is ongoing; please apply by January 15, 2025 to
ensure full consideration. The start date of the position is 03.06.2025
(but may be negotiable!).  A short summary of the project is available
below or at https://genomicsofoutbreaks.com/.

Krystyna Nadachowska-Brzyska

*More details on the project*

One of the central goals of evolutionary biology is to understand how
natural selection works and how it operates at the genomic level. In
particular, rapid adaptation, where strong selection leads to drastic
phenotypic changes within a few generations, has been at the center of
recent scientific debate. In part, this is because while identifying the
molecular basis of rapid and often polygenic evolutionary responses at the
phenotypic level has proven difficult, several recent studies have
suggested that genome-wide rapid adaptation can be detected and quantified
using temporal genomic data and appropriate statistical analyses. In
addition, an increasing number of recent studies have suggested that
polymorphic inversions may be key drivers of rapid adaptation. This
changing perspective, but also methodological advances, indicate that there
is an urgent need to revisit long-standing questions in the field of
evolutionary genetics and eco-evolutionary dynamics, such as: Can
populations continuously adapt to changing environments (via adaptive
tracking)? What is the genomic architecture of such adaptation? Or, does
fluctuating selection acting on multiple loci across the genome play a
critical role in rapid adaptation?

The main goal of this project is to address several hypotheses about the
nature of rapid adaptation by characterizing the temporal genome-wide
dynamics of allele frequencies in multiple populations of the spruce bark
beetle. In particular, we will test whether the bark beetle is under
temporally fluctuating selection, whether it is more frequent than
directional selection, and whether it affects large parts of the species
genome. We aim to identify sets of SNPs that show significant changes in
allele frequencies over short periods of time, and to identify genes and
pathways associated with directional and fluctuating selection. In
addition, we will take advantage of the extremely complex genomic landscape
of polymorphic inversions discovered in the spruce bark beetle and test
whether polymorphic inversions are important drivers of rapid adaptation
within the species. We will also identify potential abiotic factors that
generate fluctuations in selection and force specific genomic regions to
continuously respond to environmental changes (outside and inside
inversions). Finally, we will quantify the effect of linked selection on
linked neutral sites on ecological timescales, the effect of which is
particularly understudied on short temporal scales.

To address the main questions of the project, we will use extensive
temporal data sets from several spruce bark beetle populations collected
over the course of several generations, we will use a combination of
short-read pooled sequencing and long-read nanopore sequencing approaches,
and we will apply state-of-the-art population genetics and statistical
analyses. The results of the project will shed light on fundamental
evolutionary questions regarding the role and prevalence of adaptive
tracking of rapidly changing environments, the role of polymorphic
inversions in rapid adaptation, and the genomic scale of fluctuating
selection in natural populations. We believe that this proposal is a unique
example of research that aims to shed light on multilocus fluctuating
selection in the context of an extremely inversion-rich genome, and as such
will have a high impact on the advancement of the field.

Krystyna Nadachowska-Brzyska <krystyna.brzyska@gmail.com>

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