publications & talks

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Publications

• Wu, A., Zhao, Y., McDonald, J.L.; Kumar, M., Wilson, R.H., & Shoulders, M.D. (2026). RubiSpec-MS: Determination of Rubisco CO2/O2 specificity using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. In review. Preprint

• McDonald, J.L., et al. (2026). Machine learning-assisted directed evolution of plant Rubisco. Science Advances, 12(41), eaeh3246. PDF

• McDonald, J.L., et al. (2025). In vivo directed evolution of an ultrafast Rubisco from a semianaerobic environment imparts oxygen resistance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 122(27), e2505083122. PDF | MIT news

• McDonald, J. L. & Wilson, R. H. (2025). New molecular chaperone roles for CO2 assimilation in early land plants. Molecular Plant.

• Mengiste, A.A., McDonald, J.L., et al. (2024). MutaT7GDE: A Single chimera for the targeted, balanced, efficient, and processive installation of all possible transition mutations in vivo. ACS Synthetic Biology, 13(9), 2693-2701.

• Boopathy, S., Makhlouta Lugo, C., … McDonald, J.L., et al. (2024) Identification of SLC25A46 interaction interfaces with mitochondrial membrane fusogens Opa1 and Mfn2. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 107740.

• Fry, M.Y., Navarro, P.P., … McDonald, J.L., et al. (2023). In situ architecture of Opa1-dependent mitochondrial cristae remodeling. The EMBO journal, 43(3), 391-413.

• Ge, Y., Shi, X., Boopathy, S., McDonald, J.L., Smith, A. W., & Chao, L. H. (2020). Two forms of Opa1 cooperate to complete fusion of the mitochondrial inner-membrane. eLife, 9, e50973.

Conferences and talks

• Rockefeller University Infectious Disease, Immunology, & Metabolism Retreat: Mining Microbial Metabolisms with Genome-resolved Metatranscriptomics. (2026), Ossining, NY

• MIT Climate & Sustainability Graduate Research Lunch Series: Engineering Photosynthesis for Higher Crop Yields. (2025), Cambridge, MA.

• McDonald, J. L., Wilson, R. H., Shoulders, M. D. (2024). Engineering the Photosynthetic Enzyme Rubisco for Enhanced Carboxylation Efficiency. American Society of Plant Biologists. Abstract

• Australian National University Plant Biology Seminar Series: Technology for Continuous Directed Evolution of Rubisco (2023), Canberra, AU. Host: Spencer Whitney

• McDonald, J. L., Mengiste, A. A., Plank, A. V., Wilson, R. H., Shoulders, M. D. (2023). A Versatile Plasmid-based System for Continuous Evolution in Bacterial Hosts. Boston Bacterial Meeting. Abstract

• McDonald, J. L., Wilson, R. H., Shoulders, M. D. (2023). Continuous Directed Evolution of Plant Rubisco. Gordon Research Conference: CO2 Assimilation in Plants from Biome to Genome.