Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution
Yukiyo Sato, Roos Bex, Grardy C. M. van den Berg, Parthasarathy Santhanam, Monica Höfte, Michael F. Seidl, Bart P. H. J. Thomma
This study identifies Starship transposons as abundant and virulence-associated elements in Verticillium dahliae, showing their role in horizontal gene transfer and virulence evolution.
Nature Communications · Jul 24, 2025Peer-reviewedMicrobiology