Lee I M, Klopmeyer M, Bartoszyk I M, Gundersen-Rindal D E, Chou T S, Thomson K L, Eisenreich R
Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, USDA ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
Nat Biotechnol. 1997 Feb;15(2):178-82. doi: 10.1038/nbt0297-178.
Free-branching poinsettia cultivars that produce numerous axillary shoots are essential for propagating desirable multi-flowered poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima Wild. Klotz). For more than a decade, a biological agent has been suspected to cause free-branching in poinsettias. Attempts to identify the branching agent have failed. Isolation of the pathogen was accomplished using a living host and it was concluded that an unculturable phytoplasma is the cause of free-branching in poinsettias. This is the first reported example of a pathogenic phytoplasma as the causal agent of a desirable and economically important trait.
能产生大量腋芽的自由分枝一品红品种对于繁殖理想的多花一品红（大戟科大戟属一品红）至关重要。十多年来，一直怀疑有一种生物因子导致一品红自由分枝。鉴定这种分枝因子的尝试均告失败。利用活体寄主完成了病原体的分离，并得出结论：一种不可培养的植原体是一品红自由分枝的病因。这是首次报道致病性植原体作为一种理想且具有经济重要性的性状的致病因子。
