Postdoc position at the University of Kansas, Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology (eeb.ku.edu), to study the genetics/genomics
of complex floral trait adaptation across a species boundary in the
wildflower genus, Penstemon.

Contact Lena Hileman (PI, hilemanlab.org, lhileman@ku.edu) and/or John
Kelly (co-I, jkk@ku.edu) directly to share your interest in the position,
even if you are not immediately finishing your PhD.

The postdoc will be
  co-mentored by Hileman and Kelly in research and professional
development,

  an active member of the vibrant genomics postdoctoral community at KU
supported intellectually by the KU Center for Genomics (genomics.ku.edu),

  supported in development of quantitative and evolutionary genetics
and genomics skills in an exciting emerging model plant system,

  a major contributor to the focal project and provided opportunities
to develop independent lines of related research,

  supported in mentoring junior researchers including those who
participate regularly in Hileman/Kelly lab research through the KU
Office for Diversity in Science Training (odst.ku.edu).

Project overview:
The Hileman & Kelly labs at KU, in collaboration with
Dr. Carolyn Wessinger at the University of South Carolina
(https://wessingerlab.github.io/), will use recently developed genetic and
genomic resources to dissect the genome to phenome relationship between
bee- and hummingbird-adapted floral syndrome traits that define species
in a Penstemon complex. In previous work, we have shown that a handful of
unlinked genomic regions are strongly diagnostic of bee- vs. hummingbird
floral syndrome and therefore species identity (Wessinger et al. 2023;
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002294). These diagnostic genomic
regions result from natural selection favoring alternative floral trait
combinations promoting bee- versus hummingbird-pollination. Through
continued genome-wide association mapping, these regions are expected
to include only 1-2 genes each.

The Hileman & Kelly labs, including the recruited postdoc, will use
population genomic, transcriptomic and gene functional prediction methods,
to genetically dissected these divergent genomic regions. The results will
contribute to our understanding of complex trait evolution including the
discover of floral traits experiencing natural selection that contribute
to divergent pollination syndromes, the role of regulatory versus protein
coding mutations in adaptive evolution, and how selection acts to maintain
multi-locus species differences in the face of gene flow. In addition,
the postdoc will be mentored in developing independent lines of related
research, including support developing postdoctoral training and/or
standard (co-I) grant proposals aimed at advancing independent lines of
research and the postdoc's professional development.

"Hileman, Lena" <lhileman@ku.edu>

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