1. Please state project objectives and what work was done this quarter to address them:This report is for year 3 (July 1, 2023 – May 30, 2024) of Project 21-002C – Continued Support for the Southern Gardens Diagnostic Laboratory. This project provides HLB testing for researchers, growers and homeowners. A total of 11,030 samples were run during the year. All samples were plant samples, mostly from research trials. To date, a total of 70,600 samples have been run for the 3 years that have been funded to date. The number of samples for year 3 represents a substantial reduction from the number of samples received in the past (averaging about 25,000/yr). This could be due to the state of the industry or to the perception that PCR analysis does not provide the resolution necessary to discriminate between treatments. As an attempt to provide more applicable data to determine if HLB mitigation treatments were working, SGDL is in the process of adapting and validating an assay developed by Dr. Ping Duan (USDA) to indirectly measure activity of the CLas bacterium. This assay, if validated, will be offered in the future as a means of evalutating treatments (e.g. OTC injection) to see if CLas metabolism and growth is being affected.2. Please state what work is anticipated for next quarter:SGDL will continue the testing and validation of the assay developed by Dr. Duan to determine it’s potential for use as a method to evaluate the effectiveness of HLB mitigation strategies. If it proves to be an effective method, this assay as well as the convential qPCR and qPCR with copy number determination will be offered to growers and researchers going forward.3. Please state budget status (underspend or overspend, and why):Due to the reduction in the number of samples and cofunding by one of the private companies that is utilizing the laboratory, the spending was well under the not to exceed cap that CRDF placed on the spending. Although the cost per sample went up (due to the fixed cost of the technicians being spread out over a smaller number of samples), the amount funded by CRDF was approximately 62% of the not to exceed cap.