Saskia Hogenhout, John Innes Centre, UK, has been named a 2021 Fellow of The American Phytopathological Society (APS). This honor recognizes distinguished contributions to plant pathology in one or more of the following areas: original research, teaching, administration, professional and public service, and extension and outreach.

1. What area(s) of molecular plant-microbe interactions do you feel your research has impacted most?

I believe my research has most impacted the fields of bacteriology, vector-borne disease, and molecular plant-microbe-insect interactions. At the time I started research on phytoplasmas, the majority of bacteriologists studied culturable bacterial plant pathogens, such as Pseudomonas, Xanthomonas, and Erwinia species, and their type III secretion systems and effectors. In contrast, phytoplasmas are obligate colonizers of plants and insects, reside in the cytoplasm of their host cells, and secrete their effectors via sec-dependent pathways. My research has shown that research on nontractable organisms is highly rewarding, as it has led to the characterization of reactive small effector proteins that can induce dramatic changes in plant development and attract phytoplasma insect vectors to plants. These phytoplasma effectors act like molecular glues that short-circuit key plant pathways. Phytoplasma effectors have been useful tools to study connections between plant development and defense processes.

2. What advice do you have for young scientists aspiring to achieve the level of science that has a major impact?

I think it is important to remain interested and inspired by the scientific topic being studied. When times get tough, the science itself will give you the resilience, excitement, and positivity to move forward. In addition, it builds the self-confidence that what you are doing is high impact, no matter what others may think about it.

3. When you were a postdoc, what had the largest influence on your decision to enter your specific research area in your permanent position? Was this a "hot topic" at the time, or did you choose to go in a different direction?

I started my tenure-track position just after I received my Ph.D. degree. I was inspired by the work of Skip Nault, who published many research papers and reviews on phytoplasmas. I was intrigued by the findings that infections by these bacteria induce changes in plant architecture and plant-insect interactions. Given my expertise in insect-vectored plant pathogens gained from my Ph.D. work, I was in an excellent position to dissect the molecular mechanisms that underpin phytoplasma-induced symptoms. The work of Skip was widely known in the vector-borne plant disease field, but I had the impression that few people in the bacteriology field knew about phytoplasmas. The dogma at that time was that hormone imbalance triggered disease symptoms, and when I started my lab, people frequently asked me about hormone imbalances induced by phytoplasmas. However, my team found that the developmental symptoms are induced by small protein effectors that degrade key transcription factors. Given that most scientists worked on culturable plant pathogens, my team's work on the nonculturable phytoplasmas was seen as novel, and I think this helped me to get funding for the research.

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