​Phytoplasma Research

​Phytoplasmas are one of the most aggressive phloem-limited pathogens that are obligate parasites of plants transmitted by sap-feeding insects which also serve as their hosts. They infect more than 1000 plant species including many important crops and are associated with devastating yield losses worldwide. These unique bacteria underwent massive reductions in genome size reaching one of the smallest genomes during their evolution from bacterial ancestors. However, phytoplasmas can still adapt to a complex life cycle that involves two distinct host environment- plants and insect. Furthermore, phytoplasma infection leads to massive changes on plant morphology associated with a severely impaired ultrastructure of the host cells. Despite their agricultural importance and unique features, phytoplasmas remain one of the most poorly characterized plant pathogens mostly due to the lack of a successful in vitro culture, gene delivery, and mutagenesis systems. It is agriculturally important to identify factors involved in their pathogenicity and to discover effective measures to control phytoplasma diseases.

​Aim

The aim of our research is to discover and utilize new knowledge to devise and develop new, improved technologies to detect, identify, and classify phytoplasmas that cause economically important plant diseases.

​Research Outreach

• ​Develop a droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) technique to differentiate diverse phytoplasma species and strain precisely
• Perform transcriptome analyses to reveal the expression profiles of pathogenic genes in diverse phytoplasma
  
• Apply comparative genomics to determine the genes shared by divergent phytoplasmas but absent from obligate human and animal pathogens that are likely important for insect transmission and/or plant pathogenicity
  
• Develop a new fluorescent protein labeling and electron microscope system to visualize the phytoplasma infection mechanism.

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