MSCA-EPF team Epi2Trans at LGDP Perpignan France

Call for application for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) European Postdoctoral Fellowship (EPF) Project Cooperation in the Epi2Trans team at the Plant Genome and Development Laboratory (LGDP) in Perpignan, France

Guillaume Moissiard and members of the team Epi2Trans are seeking a motivated fellow to apply for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) European Postdoctoral Fellowship (EPF) 2026 in the field of plant epigenetics and transposable elements at LGDP in Perpignan, South of France.

https://lgdp.univ-perp.fr/recherche/epigenetic-regulations-of-transcription-and-transposons

The LGDP is a French CNRS and University of Perpignan laboratory studying plant genome dynamics and molecular mechanisms regulating gene expression in the context of plant development and adaptation to environmental constraints such as heat stress.

The Epi2Trans team studies epigenetic pathways and chromatin factors regulating gene expression and repressing transposable elements (TEs). We are also characterizing the function of TE genes that have been exapted – also known as coopted or domesticated – by the plants. Finally, we are studying the impact of TEs on transcriptomic diversity in plants subjected to abiotic stresses such as heat to understand how TEs can contribute to plant adaptation in response to environmental stresses.

Our research is mostly done in Arabidopsis and tomato, two plant species displaying very different genome organizations. We combine Illumina short-read and Oxford Nanopore technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing to study differential gene expression, full length RNA diversity, structural variations and epigenetic modifications. We use biochemical approaches to study chromatin/protein interaction (ChIP-seq) and protein interaction (IP-MS, CLNIP-MS, Co-IP, FPLC…). Finally, we use innovative bioinformatic approaches to identify new events of exapted TE genes.

To be eligible, the candidate must earn a PhD with less than 8 year of research experience in European labs, and has not spent more than 12 months in France over the last three years at the time of the deadline (9 September 2026).

Keywords: Plant epigenetics, transcription, transposable elements, exaptation, ONT long-read direct RNA sequencing

For further enquiries, please contact me at guillaume.moissiard@univ-perp.fr