Eran Dagan – MSc Student

Eran is researching the physiological mechanisms that control mesophyll conductance under water limitation – he focuses on the trade off that occurs between stomatal conductance and mesophyll conductance. In his work, Eran aims to understand whether mesophyll anatomy can be affected by short-and long-term drought.
 

Mia Stern - MSc Student

Mia is studying the roles of Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) on Mesophyll Conductance to CO2 and Photosynthetic Capacity in C3 Plants. She is focusing on model plants Arabidopsis and tomato to study the metabolic and anatomical factors that control and regulate mesophyll conductance under optimal and stress conditions. Mia is identifying the role of CA on mesophyll conductance, by generating CRISPR/Cas9 mutants in tomato and using existing Arabidopsis CA mutants, including knockout overexpression and tissue specific lines.
 

Bar Ben Zeev  - MSc Student

Bar is researching the physiological and anatomical mechanisms that control mesophyll conductance under varying temperatures and aims to understand the mechanism that controls mesophyll conductance in response to temperature. In his research he combines stable isotope (¹⁸O & ¹³C discrimination) and gas exchange in the tomato and other fruit trees.
 

Ariel Joseph – Research Assistant (In collaboration with Efrat Sheffer)

Ariel investigates the response of photosynthesis to varying sources of nitrogen nutrition - he aims to identify the traits controlling the relationship between leaf nitrogen and photosynthesis in legumes and cereals and quantify the contribution of symbiotic N2 fixation to the process of photosynthesis.
 

Arielle Lofchick – Lab Technician

Arielle is our research assistant, studying gas exchange and whole plant phenomenon in the banana plant. She is studying photosynthesis and its limiting factors using advanced gas exchange coupled to isotope discrimination system accompanied by dynamic high-resolution three-dimensional anatomical sampling.
 

Yotam Zait:

Yotam is a plant physiologist interested in studying the mechanisms that control photosynthesis under abiotic environmental stresses. He grew up surrounded by avocado and banana trees, and was always intrigued by how plants can continue to grow and cope in varying conditions.  As such, his research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that regulate photosynthesis under drought and varying temperature.