Training School “The use of MSAP Technique in plant epigenetics”
The COST Action EPICATCH is very excited to announce the organization of its training school on "The use of MSAP Technique in plant epigenetics" which will be held at the Fisciano Campus of the University of Salerno (Italy) on September 13-16, 2022.
Plants are sessile organisms and are constantly challenged by adverse abiotic environmental conditions (such as drought, heat, cold, nutrient deficiencies and excess salt or toxic metal levels in the soil) and/or biotic interactions (herbivores, pathogens or strong competitors). Then, plants need to respond and adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions, mainly under the current climate change. Immobile plants succeed in surviving in a changeable and often hostile environment due to a high phenotypic plasticity, which includes sophisticated epigenetic mechanisms to respond and adapt to various stresses.
In this context, the aims of training school are to provide knowledge on:
- epigenetics and its implication in plant biology, with relevant emphasis to plant response to environmental challenges and adaptation;
- lab tools and methodologies useful for studying epigenetic phenomena and for methylation monitoring in plants.
During the training school (delivered entirely in English), the main genome-wide molecular tools will be briefly described, while providing the participants with the opportunity to apply one of the most performing methodologies in the lab with experts in the topic. Participants will learn and perform a molecular technique useful to study DNA methylation in plants MSAP-NGS coupled technology, followed by data analysis using specific bioinformatic tools.
Researchers, who are interested to explore this topic, are invited to express their interest to participate as trainees.
Participation in the Training School will be limited to up to 15 trainees, and there is no tuition fee. Six selected trainees can be reimbursed for their long-distance travel and through a daily allowance (see eligibility section).
Eligibility: Eligibility is determined by COST Association funders. According to the COST rules, the funded participants may have any nationality but must be primarily affiliated to an organisation (academic, public, private, NGO, etc.) based in a COST Member country or COST Near Neighbour country. The selected trainees can be reimbursed for their long-distance travel up to 300€, and through an applicable daily allowance up to 201€ (more information are available at
https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2022/03/Travel-Reimbursement-Rules_March-2022.pdf).
Application and review: The online application form can be found on the REGISTRATION page and the deadline for applications is Thursday 21 July, 2022. Notifications of acceptance will be online published. In assessing applications, priority will be given to postgraduates and early-career researchers (from PhD students to post-docs with up to 8 years of experience after their PhD), and the gender balance will be aimed. In application reviews, the evaluation committee, identified with 3 teachers at the University of Salerno, will evaluate for each applicant: scientific curriculum; publications (if any) and experience in the area of interest; declared motivations why the applicant wants to attend to the training school and receive financial support from the COST Action.
For more information please contact:
Prof. Stefano Castiglione (scastiglione@unisa.it)
Prof. Angela Cicatelli (acicatelli@unisa.it)
Dr. Francesco Guarino (fguarino@unisa.it)
