Focus
Biogenesis, function, and engineering of the eukaryotic CO2-fixing organelle, the pyrenoid
Research
Our laboratory seeks to advance our basic understanding of cell biology. We study the pyrenoid, a mysterious phase-separated organelle that enhances CO2 capture in nearly all eukaryotic algae. Understanding the pyrenoid is important because of its central role in our planet’s carbon cycle, because the pyrenoid embodies fundamental questions in organelle biogenesis, and because engineering a pyrenoid into land plants could dramatically increase crop yields. To accelerate progress, we are developing community resources for the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model system for photosynthetic organisms.
Biography
Martin Jonikas obtained a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004. He completed his Ph.D. in 2009 at the University of California, San Francisco working with Jonathan Weissman, Maya Schuldiner, and Peter Walter on high-throughput genetics and protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum. In 2010 he started his laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science on Stanford campus. In 2016, he moved his laboratory to Princeton. He is the recipient of a 2010 Air Force Young Investigator Award, a 2015 NIH New Innovator Award, a 2016 Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Simons Foundation Faculty Scholar Award, a 2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, and the 2022 International Society of Photosynthesis Research Melvin Calvin-Andrew Benson Award.
Honors & Awards
2022
- Melvin Calvin-Andrew Benson Award, International Society of Photosynthesis Research
2020
- Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science
2016
- HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Simons Foundation
2015
- National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award, National Institutes of Health
2010
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
2006
- Graduate Course Teaching Award, University of California, San Francisco
2005
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation
Education
- Ph.D., Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of California, San Francisco
- B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Selected Publications
- 1.Wang L, Patena W, Van Baalen K, Xie Y, Singer E, Gavrilenko S, Warren-Williams M, Han L, Harrigan H, Hartz L, Chen V, Ton V, Kyin S, Shwe H, Cahn M, Wilson A, Onishi M, Hu J, Schnell D, McWhite C, Jonikas M. A chloroplast protein atlas reveals punctate structures and spatial organization of biosynthetic pathways. Cell. 2023;186(16):3499–3518.e14. PMID: 37437571
- 1.He S, Crans V, Jonikas M. The pyrenoid: the eukaryotic CO2-concentrating organelle. The Plant cell. 2023;35(9):3236–3259. PMCID: PMC10473226
- 1.Fei C, Wilson A, Mangan N, Wingreen N, Jonikas M. Modelling the pyrenoid-based CO-concentrating mechanism provides insights into its operating principles and a roadmap for its engineering into crops. Nat Plants. 2022;8(5):583–595. PMCID: PMC9122830
- 1.Meyer M, Itakura A, Patena W, Wang L, He S, Emrich-Mills T, Lau C, Yates G, Mackinder L, Jonikas M. Assembly of the algal CO-fixing organelle, the pyrenoid, is guided by a Rubisco-binding motif. Sci Adv. 2020;6(46). PMCID: PMC7673724
- 1.He S, Chou H-T, Matthies D, Wunder T, Meyer M, Atkinson N, Martinez-Sanchez A, Jeffrey P, Port S, Patena W, He G, Chen V, Hughson F, McCormick A, Mueller-Cajar O, Engel B, Yu Z, Jonikas M. The structural basis of Rubisco phase separation in the pyrenoid. Nat Plants. 2020;6(12):1480–1490. PMCID: PMC7736253
- 1.Hennacy J, Jonikas M. Prospects for Engineering Biophysical CO Concentrating Mechanisms into Land Plants to Enhance Yields. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2020;71:461–485. PMCID: PMC7845915
- 1.Itakura A, Chan K, Atkinson N, Pallesen L, Wang L, Reeves G, Patena W, Caspari O, Roth R, Goodenough U, McCormick A, Griffiths H, Jonikas M. A Rubisco-binding protein is required for normal pyrenoid number and starch sheath morphology in . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(37):18445–18454. PMCID: PMC6744930
- 1.Li X, Patena W, Fauser F, Jinkerson R, Saroussi S, Meyer M, Ivanova N, Robertson J, Yue R, Zhang R, Vilarrasa-Blasi J, Wittkopp T, Ramundo S, Blum S, Goh A, Laudon M, Srikumar T, Lefebvre P, Grossman A, Jonikas M. A genome-wide algal mutant library and functional screen identifies genes required for eukaryotic photosynthesis. Nat Genet. 2019;51(4):627–635. PMCID: PMC6636631
- 1.Rosenzweig E, Xu B, Cuellar L, Martinez-Sanchez A, Schaffer M, Strauss M, Cartwright H, Ronceray P, Plitzko J, Förster F, Wingreen N, Engel B, Mackinder L, Jonikas M. The Eukaryotic CO-Concentrating Organelle Is Liquid-like and Exhibits Dynamic Reorganization. Cell. 2017;171(1):148–162.e19. PMCID: PMC5671343
- 1.Mackinder L, Chen C, Leib R, Patena W, Blum S, Rodman M, Ramundo S, Adams C, Jonikas M. A Spatial Interactome Reveals the Protein Organization of the Algal CO-Concentrating Mechanism. Cell. 2017;171(1):133–147.e14. PMCID: PMC5616186
- 1.Mackinder L, Meyer M, Mettler-Altmann T, Chen V, Mitchell M, Caspari O, Rosenzweig E, Pallesen L, Reeves G, Itakura A, Roth R, Sommer F, Geimer S, Mühlhaus T, Schroda M, Goodenough U, Stitt M, Griffiths H, Jonikas M. A repeat protein links Rubisco to form the eukaryotic carbon-concentrating organelle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;113(21):5958–63. PMCID: PMC4889370
- 1.Li X, Zhang R, Patena W, Gang S, Blum S, Ivanova N, Yue R, Robertson J, Lefebvre P, Fitz-Gibbon S, Grossman A, Jonikas M. An Indexed, Mapped Mutant Library Enables Reverse Genetics Studies of Biological Processes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Cell. 2016;28(2):367–87. PMCID: PMC4790863
- 1.Armbruster U, Carrillo R, Venema K, Pavlovic L, Schmidtmann E, Kornfeld A, Jahns P, Berry J, Kramer D, Jonikas M. Ion antiport accelerates photosynthetic acclimation in fluctuating light environments. Nat Commun. 2014;5:5439. PMCID: PMC4243252
