Closing Date: 2/25/2023

Job Address:

UMR 1287 Ecophysiologie et Génomique Fonctionnelle de la Vigne
ISVV Bordeaux-Aquitaine
210 Chemin de Leysotte, 33140 Villenave-d’Ornon, France

Job Description: 

3-year Postdoctoral Position – Investigating Rootstock and Clonal Diversity of Grapevine Water Use and Berry Composition

Project Title: Understanding and quantifying the contribution of genetic components to the diversity of grapevine environmental response (DiverGrape)

Desired Start Date: March-April 2023 

Duration: 3 years

Project Description:

Winegrape production is one of the most economically important agrosystems in Europe. Grapevine has a large breadth of genetic diversity at the rootstock, variety, and clone levels. Unfortunately, very little of this diversity is currently utilized and its potential role in abiotic stress response has not been properly quantified. This leaves growers with the open-question of which is the best tool(s) to adapt their vineyards to specific environmental challenges (e.g. heatwaves, drought, waterlogging, etc). At the scientific level, it is essential to understand the genetic plasticity of rootstocks, varieties and clones (and their interactions) to further adapt and improve the current planting material and to preserve the genetic diversity of grape varieties used across Europe. Standards for physiological traits need to be defined, and the influence of the diverse genetic backgrounds to the value and flexibility of these traits under different environmental conditions needs to be understood.

With this in mind, project DiverGrape has been designed including partners from three European countries (France, Spain, and Austria) with varying environmental and vineyard conditions. The partnership will exchange pre-doctoral and postdoc researchers using a standardized methodological approach based on both eco-physiology and metabolomics tools to quantify the contribution to environmental response of: i) clonal variation within given local varieties, ii) rootstock material for a given variety and iii) the interaction between rootstock and scion. Taking advantage of existing vineyards with a variety of genetic material located in different European viticulture areas, the partnership will quantify how environment drives grapevine plasticity to specific climates. The results obtained through project DiverGrape seeks to provide grape growers with the knowledge to optimize the existing grapevine genetic diversity in order to adapt their vineyards to more extreme climate situations.

The EGFV Lab: The EGFV staff embodies a breadth of expertise including a full-time staff dedicated to the propagation of plant material and management of vineyards, dedicated laboratory managers, dedicated staff to aid in the basic analyses and the use of laboratory instruments, and a bioinformatics team. One of the centerpieces of the research associated with DiverGrape will be EGFV’s GreffeAdapt vineyard which contains 55 rootstocks grafted on 5 scions across 3 blocks (https://ives-openscience.eu/4150/). This robust infrastructure will be at the disposal of the Postdoctoral Researcher.

Expertise Desired: Candidates must have a PhD in the plant sciences/agronomy fields with specific training in ecophysiology. Project DiverGrape will require measures of field level gas exchange and numerous agronomic parameters focused on grapevine growth and fruit development. Specific experience working with grapevine is preferred, but is not required. As part of this PostDoctoral experience the researcher will receive extensive mentoring on writing scientific articles, but nevertheless the successful candidate is expected to have excellent data analysis and visualization skills, and competent writing skills in English including a record of successful scientific publication from their previous research experiences. The candidate must be relatively fluent in English. Competency in French in not required, but the PostDoctoral Researcher will be expected to learn French (to achieve basic working compentency) during their stay.

To Apply:

Contact: please send C.V. and cover letter via email to 
Prof. Gregory Gambetta
gregory.gambetta@agro-bordeaux.fr 
210 Chem. de Leysotte
33140 Villenave-d’Ornon, France