Pangenomics developments for UK aquaculture species (HAERTY_E25CEFAS)
Key Details
- Application deadline
- 26 March 2025 (midnight UK time)
- Location
- Earlham Institute
- Funding type
- Directly funded (UK/Home students only)
- Start date
- 1 June 2025
- Mode of study
- Full-time
- Programme type
- PhD
Project description
Primary supervisor - Dr Wilfried Haerty
For the last 30 years the outputs of wild capture fisheries have plateaued mainly due to the impact of over exploitation of the existing stocks. The assessment of the genetic diversity and population structure within a species are keys in establishing the sustainability of this species. Genomics offers the unprecedented potential to accurately delineate fisheries stocks. This enables better fisheries management, by identifying biologically relevant management units. To date, fisheries genomics studies have relied on at best a single reference genome, which represents the genetic content of only one individual thereby limiting investigations to genetic variation identified within only homologous regions. Here though a highly collaborative project between Cefas (Dr David Murray, Dr Adam Ciezarek) and the Earlham Institute (Dr Wilfried Haerty) we propose to apply a pangenomic approach to quantify the genetic diversity of the UK populations of two major aquaculture species: the pollack, and herring. Through the completion of this project the candidate will gain highly transferable skills (bioinformatics, genome assembly, population genomics).
For further information and to apply, please visit our website.
Entry requirements
At least UK equivalence Bachelors (Honours) 2:1 or UK equivalence Masters degree. English language requirement (Faculty of Science equivalent: IELTS 6.5 overall, 6 in each category).
Funding
This project is awarded with a 4-year joint funded Cefas and Earlham Institute PhD studentship. This is open to Home Fee Status applicants only. Tuition fees at Home Rate only are covered, and a stipend will be provided for each year of the studentship (2024/5 rate is £19,237.00). Research training support funding is available.