Associate Professor of Molecular Biology
Contact
mjonikas@princeton.edu609-258-5981
Thomas Laboratory, 303
Jonikas Lab
Faculty Assistant
Ellen Brindle-ClarkEducation
Ph.D., Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of California, San FranciscoB.S., Aerospace Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Curriculum Vitae
Research Area
Cell Biology, Development & CancerResearch Focus
Biogenesis, function and engineering of the eukaryotic CO2-fixing organelle, the pyrenoidWebsite
Jonikas Lab websiteResearch
Selected Publications
Biography
Honors & Awards
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.
Fauser F, Vilarrasa-Blasi J, Onishi M, Ramundo S, Patena W, Millican M, et al. Systematic characterization of gene function in the photosynthetic alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Nat Genet. 2022 ;54(5):705-714. PubMed
BibTex
Fei C, Wilson AT, Mangan NM, Wingreen NS, Jonikas MC. 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. PubMed
BibTex
Prior MJ, Selvanayagam J, Kim J-G, Tomar M, Jonikas MC, Mudgett MBeth, et al. bZIP11 Is a Susceptibility Factor During Infection. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 2021 ;34(4):439-447. PubMed
BibTex
Ramundo S, Asakura Y, Salomé PA, Strenkert D, Boone M, Mackinder LCM, et al.. Coexpressed subunits of dual genetic origin define a conserved supercomplex mediating essential protein import into chloroplasts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 ;117(51):32739-32749. PubMed
BibTex
Franklin E, Jonikas MC. Increasing the uptake of carbon dioxide. Elife. 2020 ;9. PubMed
BibTex
He S, Chou H-T, Matthies D, Wunder T, Meyer MT, Atkinson N, et al. The structural basis of Rubisco phase separation in the pyrenoid. Nat Plants. 2020 ;6(12):1480-1490. PubMed
BibTex
Meyer MT, Itakura AK, Patena W, Wang L, He S, Emrich-Mills T, et al. Assembly of the algal CO-fixing organelle, the pyrenoid, is guided by a Rubisco-binding motif. Sci Adv. 2020 ;6(46). PubMed
BibTex
Wang L, Jonikas MC. The pyrenoid. Curr Biol. 2020 ;30(10):R456-R458. PubMed
BibTex
Hennacy JH, Jonikas MC. Prospects for Engineering Biophysical CO Concentrating Mechanisms into Land Plants to Enhance Yields. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2020 ;71:461-485. PubMed
BibTex
Itakura AK, Chan KXing, Atkinson N, Pallesen L, Wang L, Reeves G, et al. 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. PubMed
BibTex
Li X, Patena W, Fauser F, Jinkerson RE, Saroussi S, Meyer MT, et al. A genome-wide algal mutant library and functional screen identifies genes required for eukaryotic photosynthesis. Nat Genet. 2019 ;51(4):627-635. PubMed
BibTex
Rosenzweig ESFreeman, Xu B, Cuellar LKuhn, Martinez-Sanchez A, Schaffer M, Strauss M, et al. The Eukaryotic CO-Concentrating Organelle Is Liquid-like and Exhibits Dynamic Reorganization. Cell. 2017 ;171(1):148-162.e19. PubMed
BibTex
Mackinder LCM, Chen C, Leib RD, Patena W, Blum SR, Rodman M, et al. A Spatial Interactome Reveals the Protein Organization of the Algal CO-Concentrating Mechanism. Cell. 2017 ;171(1):133-147.e14. PubMed
BibTex
Mackinder LCM, Meyer MT, Mettler-Altmann T, Chen VK, Mitchell MC, Caspari O, et al. A repeat protein links Rubisco to form the eukaryotic carbon-concentrating organelle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 ;113(21):5958-63. PubMed
BibTex
Li X, Zhang R, Patena W, Gang SS, Blum SR, Ivanova N, et al. An Indexed, Mapped Mutant Library Enables Reverse Genetics Studies of Biological Processes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Cell. 2016 ;28(2):367-87. PubMed
BibTex
Armbruster U, L Carrillo R, Venema K, Pavlovic L, Schmidtmann E, Kornfeld A, et al. Ion antiport accelerates photosynthetic acclimation in fluctuating light environments. Nat Commun. 2014 ;5:5439. PubMed
BibTex
Jonikas MC, Collins SR, Denic V, Oh E, Quan EM, Schmid V, et al. Comprehensive characterization of genes required for protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Science. 2009 ;323(5922):1693-7. PubMed
BibTex
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, and a 2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.