Postdoctoral position investigating the role of endoplasmic reticulum stress in regulation of Arabidopsis immune responses.

A three-year NSF-funded postdoctoral position is available in the Karolina Mukhtar’s lab in the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, USA http://www.uab.edu/cas/biology/kmukhtar

Inositol-Requiring Enzyme 1 (IRE1) is a highly conserved eukaryotic ER stress sensor. While chronic ER stress is linked with metazoan immune disorders, the role of IRE1a in plant immunity remains elusive. Recently, our laboratory established the first known connection between the IRE1a and its client mRNA for the bZIP60 transcription factor in Arabidopsis immune signaling (Moreno et al. 2012).

The successful candidate will be involved in projects addressing the following questions :
1) Understanding the molecular mechanisms of biotic stress-dependent IRE1a activation and deactivation under oscillating ER stress conditions;
2) Elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of IRE1a functions in cellular adaptation or pathogen-mediated cell death;
3) Deciphering the feedback mechanisms between IRE1a and the salicylic acid (SA) receptor NPR1;
4) Genome-wide discovery and characterization of novel IRE1a substrates.
Further duties include assisting in the supervision of graduate and undergraduate students, development of appropriate experiments, collection and analysis of data, interpretation of results, formulation of conclusions, and documentation in a final written form.

The successful candidate will be very well organized, have excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communications skills and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively with co-workers. A Ph.D. in biology, genetics, molecular biology, plant pathology or the equivalent, a track record of research productivity that includes first

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