The 7th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2023 Winner

Structure, biogenesis, and engineering of the pyrenoid, the eukaryotic CO₂-concentrating organelle

Martin Jonikas
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University;
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Approximately one-third of global CO₂ fixation occurs in an overlooked algal organelle called the pyrenoid. The pyrenoid enhances CO₂ fixation by supplying the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco with a high concentration of its substrate. The molecular structure and biogenesis of this ecologically fundamental organelle have remained enigmatic. My laboratory and our collaborators aim to understand the molecular basis for pyrenoid biogenesis and leverage it to engineer a pyrenoid into land plants to enhance crop CO₂ uptake and yields. In this talk, I will share our progress over the past 14 years, including the discovery that the pyrenoid is a phase-separated, liquid-like organelle; the use of genetics and systematic protein localization to identify novel components of the pyrenoid; the discovery of a key linker protein that holds Rubisco together to form the pyrenoid matrix; the discovery that many pyrenoid-localized proteins share a common sequence motif that mediates targeting to the pyrenoid; and the discovery of pyrenoid membrane tubule biogenesis factors. I will also share recent progress on leveraging this knowledge to engineer a synthetic pyrenoid into plants.

Award Lecture