First Report of Golovinomyces sordidus Causing Powdery Mildew of Plantago asiatica in India

Since April 2020, a powdery mildew disease has been consistently observed on Plantago asiatica in northern India. Microscopic examination of the associated fungus revealed morphological characteristics typical of the genus Golovinomyces . Molecular identification based on a BLASTn similarity search of the internal transcribed spacer region, along with phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony, and Bayesian inference methods, confirmed the species as Golovinomyces sordidus . Pathogenicity was verified through inoculation of healthy P. asiatica plants. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first confirmed report of G. sordidus causing powdery mildew on P. asiatica in India.