The two years post-doctoral position will be part of a project dealing with the biophysical study of asymmetric biological membranes in the context of plant defense mechanisms. The use of elicitors capable of stimulating plant defenses is a promising alternative to conventional chemical control and represents a major research area in the frame of the integrated protection development in agriculture. In this context, surfactin (SRF), a Bacillus secondary metabolite, has been proven to be of interest to trigger the plant defense mechanisms. Due to its amphiphilic character, SRF is likely to be perceived directly by the lipid constituents of the plant cell plasma membrane (PM). However, the detailed molecular mechanism is still elusive, and more particularly the question of the role of membrane asymmetry was never considered in the previous biophysical studies on SRFmembrane interactions

More information : Announcement_Postdoctoral-position_Uliege-Belgium-1.pdf