Urs Benning

Urs Benning

Urs project focused on elucidating the functional control of photosynthesis by sugars, through the sugar sensors TOR and HXK. Initially, Urs used the model C3 dicot Arabidopsis in order to over- and under-express a number of genes forming parts of the sensor complexes and their targets. The aim of this first line of research is to identify a number of sugar sensing genetic modifications that affect photosynthesis or plant productivity in Arabidopsis, and that can be taken forward to the next phase using Setaria and Rice.

Furthermore, Urs compared the role of sugar sensing in C4 and C3 photosynthesis using a number of wild type and sugar and/or photosynthesis mutants/transformants.

Urs joined the lab of Professor Pula Ghannoum at Western Sydney University as a PhD student.  He obtained his BA in Biochemistry and Molecular biology in 2013 from Michigan State University and his Masters from the University of Gottingen in Germany in 2016.

Urs was part of the Centre from 2017 to 2021