{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,30]],"date-time":"2026-03-30T19:58:21Z","timestamp":1774900701538,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"Microbiology Society","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,30]],"date-time":"2026-03-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774828800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Science and Technology Council","award":["NSTC 113-2311-B-001-031"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NSTC 113-2311-B-001-031"]}]},{"name":"Academia Sinica"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,30]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Phytoplasmas are insect-transmitted plant pathogens that manipulate host development through secreted effector proteins. While they are notorious for causing agricultural losses, in the ornamental plant poinsettia (\n                    <jats:italic>Euphorbia pulcherrima<\/jats:italic>\n                    ), phytoplasma infection is uniquely harnessed to induce the commercially desirable free-branching trait. However, the effectors responsible for this phenotype have remained unknown. To address this question, we sequenced and analysed the 705,138\u2009bp genome of \u2018\n                    <jats:italic>Candidatus<\/jats:italic>\n                    Phytoplasma pruni\u2019 PR2021, a strain associated with the high-branching cultivar Princettia Pink. Comparative genomics confirmed its species assignment and revealed an unusual effector repertoire. PR2021 lacks most previously described effectors but encodes two distinct SAP11 homologues, a family of effectors known to induce plant branching. Genomic context analysis showed that one homologue is located within a potential mobile unit (PMU) and is nearly identical to the SAP11 of the distantly related \u2018\n                    <jats:italic>Ca<\/jats:italic>\n                    . P. asteris\u2019, while the other is located outside PMU regions and is divergent in protein sequence (39.0% identity) and predicted structure. Functional assays using\n                    <jats:italic>Agrobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n                    -mediated transient expression in\n                    <jats:italic>Nicotiana benthamiana<\/jats:italic>\n                    demonstrated that each homologue independently induced significant branching, whereas co-expression did not enhance the phenotype, indicating overlapping functions. These findings establish a direct connection between poinsettia branching and SAP11-homologous effectors, providing the first experimental evidence linking phytoplasma effector activity to this horticulturally important trait. This work expands understanding of phytoplasma effector diversity and mobility, while offering a functional framework for developing pathogen-free strategies to modulate ornamental plant architecture.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1099\/mgen.0.001675","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,30]],"date-time":"2026-03-30T19:15:42Z","timestamp":1774898142000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Comparative genomics of a poinsettia-associated phytoplasma and functional validation of its SAP11-homologous effectors that induce plant branching"],"prefix":"10.1099","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9648-9845","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shen-Chian","family":"Pei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan, ROC"},{"name":"Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115201, Taiwan, ROC"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-4704-1616","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nian-Pu","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan, ROC"},{"name":"Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115201, Taiwan, ROC"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ting-Ting","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Taoyuan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station - 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