Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Food Science programme. The position is available from 01 December 2026 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.
Title:
Re-advertisement: SWEET Transporters as Regulators of Carbon Allocation and Drought Resilience in Tomato
Research area and project description:
Ensuring crop productivity under climate change is a major challenge, with drought posing one of
the most severe threats to agricultural yield. While much attention has focused on
photosynthesis, drought also disrupts the allocation of carbon from source leaves to reproductive
organs, often limiting yield before photosynthesis itself, is strongly affected.
This PhD project will investigate how SWEET (Sugars Will Eventually be Exported
Transporters) regulate carbon partitioning in tomatoes under drought conditions. SWEET
transporters mediate sucrose efflux and play a central role in phloem loading and unloading,
thereby controlling the distribution of sugars between vegetative and reproductive tissues. Their
dynamic regulation under stress suggests that they are key determinants of how plants balance
growth and survival during water deficit.
The overall aim is to identify SWEET transporters that control carbon allocation to fruits under
drought and assess whether targeted manipulation of their expression can sustain yield. The
project will combine plant physiology, molecular biology, and functional genomics approaches.
Specifically, the project will:
(i) quantify drought-induced changes in carbon assimilation, export, and partitioning using
physiological, biochemical and metabolic analyses;
(ii) identify drought-responsive SWEET genes and evaluate natural variation across tomato
genotypes;
(iii) functionally characterise candidate genes using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.
By linking molecular mechanisms of sugar transport with whole-plant physiology, this project will
generate fundamental insights into source–sink regulation and provide new strategies for improving drought resilience in tomato and other fruit crops.
Project description: For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.
Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants to the PhD position must have master’s degree (or equivalent) in plant biology, plant physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, or a related field.
Further requirements:
Candidates should ideally have experience in one or more of the following areas:
The following will be considered strong advantages:
Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Food Science, Agro Food Park 48, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark.
Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information regarding the PhD position are invited to contact:
For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide. If answers cannot be found there, please contact:
How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application.
Application deadline is 30 September 2026 at 23:59 CEST.
Preferred starting date is 01 December 2026.
Please note:
Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which everyone has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.
