ERC-funded PhD position on evolution of the deep-sea fish vision in Prague < Faculty of Science, Charles University

Award	Attendance	Study	Duration	Start	Domestic fees	International fees
PhD	On-Campus	Full-time	find out	find out	find out	find out

Course overview

Deep-sea fish have evolved extreme adaptations to their environment. Such as in their eyes with cone and rod cells responsible for photoreception. In several deep-sea fish lineages, a novel visual system with unknown mechanism has been discovered (https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aav4632). Some species use multiple rhodopsins or have uncertain identity of the cones and rods, something very unusual for vertebrates. The main goal is to study these adaptations mainly from a single-cell level perspective. While the focus is mainly on molecular evolution, we generally aim to interpret cool stories out of our findings mainly in the context of the evolution, fishes and their life. The candidate is expected to present about his/her project at international conferences and will be authoring research publications. All nations applicable.

We are searching for a motivated candidate with interest in molecular and evolutionary genomic approaches to reveal the secrets of how fish see in the deep sea. The project focuses on evolution of the visual sensory system in fishes and count with application of transcriptomics (including the single-cell transcriptomics) of the retina. The successful candidate will join the Fish Evolution research group of Zuzana Musilova at Charles University in Prague and will study eyes of species with extreme adaptations, some of them with unknown mechanisms.