A 4-year doctoral position is available at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology of the University of Tartu, Estonia.

The overall aim of the project is assessment of interactions between plant root structural, physiological and biochemical traits, as well as the plant and soil microbiome components (bacteria, archaea and fungi) in relation to increasing soil temperature and changes in soil water regime.

The functional potential of soil and plant-related microbial communities and the expression of the genes at different environmental conditions will be analysed by shotgun metagenomics and metatranscriptomes, phylogenetic diversity of microbial communities and plant microbiomes will be assessed using 16S rDNA/ITS amplicon-based high-throughput sequencing; abundances of soil bacteria and archaea will be assessed using16S rRNA gene abundance by quantitative PCR method.

The candidate must have a Master degree in microbiology or bioinformatics. Experience in data analysis of metagenomic data sets and in R-language is required, knowledge of Python is advantage.