Plastome Reassessment of Mistletoe Dendrophthoe pentandra L. Miq. and Tracing Genomic Footprint of Parasitism in Santalales

Dendrophthoe pentandra (Loranthaceae) is one of the most widely distributed mistletoe species in Indonesia, with infestations now affecting teak production forests and curated plant collections in several botanical gardens. Although parasitic, it holds significant ecological value, contributes to traditional medicine, and displays a range of biological activities. To expand the currently limited genomic resources, which include only two accessions from China with little information on parasitism, we analyzed two plastid genomes of D. pentandra collected from Indonesia. Using Illumina short-read sequencing, we performed de novo assembly, annotation, and plastome characterization, followed by comparative analyses with both parasitic and non-parasitic relatives to explore the genomic signatures of parasitism within the Santalales.