Based on your findings and my experience with these kinds of cases I believe the powdery mildew you analyzed is Leveillula. We know that powdery mildews typically grow within a host range, so you'd expect to see this kind of powdery mildew on peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. I'm surprised we found it on wheat, but the reality is new hosts are constantly being reported due to genetic mutations, and I think that's what happened here.

Now that we know what type of powdery mildew this is, I need you to start working on a Response Plan that will help farmers deal with this problem.

When we create a Response Plan like this we begin with some background. We need to keep in mind that other people within the community may also read our work. Though our audience is primarily the farmers of our area, we always include background information that will help everyone understand the findings and recommendations in our reports. I'd like you to write this "Background" section, addressing the following key points:

• What is the pathogen?
• How does it affect wheat?
• How does it spread?
• Is there a larger threat?
• What should we do about it?

I've attached a Response Plan Template to help you organize your work. We use this template for all our pathology investigations, so it's not specific to this case. I'll need you to fill in the template as it pertains to powdery mildew. I will check in with you after you have finished the "Background" for the Response Plan, and then we can move forward with recommendations to the farmer.

Thank you,

Colleen Peterson, PhD
Executive Director
Lawrence County Farming Agency