Opening in the Team of Pr. Laurent VIRIOT
INSTITUTE OF FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS OF LYON (IGFL)
http://igfl.ens-lyon.fr/
École Normale Supérieure de LYON (France)
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The evolution of vertebrate dentition is an area of investigation common to both developmental biology and paleontology. The Viriot team is recognized for its works on the Evo-Devo of dentition in rodents, cypriniformes fish, and crocodiles. We now wish to extend the realm of our research to bird paleobiology, with the aim of investigating shape, function, renewal and loss of the dentition. Team’s major assets are (1) our expertise in dental comparative anatomy, (2) our skills in 3D imaging and morphometrics, and (3) our Evo-Devo studies of the dentition including data from the fossil record as a crucial component of our investigations.
All living birds are toothless, constituting by far the most diverse toothless vertebrate clade, and are striking examples of evolutionary success following tooth loss. In recent years, an unprecedented number of Mesozoic birds have been described, illustrating the evolution of dentition reductions. Simultaneously, major advances in experimental embryology have yielded new results concerning avian edentulism. This post-doc proposes to investigate the evolutionary developmental biology of tooth loss in birds mostly emphasizing on developmental biology aspects.
Applications are invited from candidates who have previously worked on the morphogenesis, shape and evolution of dentition in a vertebrate group, whichever their background (from paleontology to developmental biology).
Knowledge in craniofacial anatomy, as well as skills in development biology, mineralized tissue histology, microtomography, 3D imaging and 2D/3D morphometrics will be welcomed.
Applicants should send a letter of interest and CV, as well as a list of 3 references, to:
Dr. Antoine LOUCHART and Pr. Laurent VIRIOT
Team «Evo-Devo of Vertebrate Dentition»
IGFL - ENS de Lyon
46 allée d'Italie - 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France
E-mail: Antoine.Louchart@ens-lyon.fr and Laurent.Viriot@ens-lyon.fr
Five recent publications of the team:
· Gomes-Rodrigues, Marangoni, Sumbera, Tafforeau, Wendelen, Viriot. (2011). Continuous dental replacement in a hyper-chisel tooth digging rodent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108:17355-59.
· Louchart, Viriot. (2011). From snout to beak: the loss of teeth in birds. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 26:663-73.
· Charles, Hovorakova, Ahn, Lyons, Marangoni, Churava, Biehs, Jheon, Lesot, Balooch, Krumlauf, Viriot, Peterkova, Klein. (2011). Regulation of tooth number by fine-tuning levels of receptor-tyrosine kinase signaling. Development 138:4063-73.
· Pasco-Viel, Charles, Chevret, Semon, Tafforeau, Viriot, Laudet. (2010). Evolutionary trends of the pharyngeal dentition in Cypriniformes (Actinopterygii: Ostariophysi). PLoS One 5:e11293.
· Charles, Lazzari, Tafforeau, Schimmang, Tekin, Klein, Viriot. (2009). Modulation of Fgf3 dosage in mouse and men mirrors evolution of mammalian dentition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106:22364-68.