Ramsey Lewis

Bio

Current research activities are in the areas of genetics and breeding in the genus Nicotiana. More specifically, research is being conducted to take advantage of biological features of these species in order to:

• develop and study improved and novel plant breeding methodologies
• understand the molecular basis of disease resistance in crop plants
• perform genetics-based manipulation of plant chemistry.

Methods used in our research are very diverse and include plant transformation, DNA marker based techniques, mutagenesis, gene-editing, and conventional field-based approaches.

Our research program also manages the United States Nicotiana Germplasm Collection
website: https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/site.aspx?id=25

and the CORESTA Series of Smokeless Tobacco Reference Products
website: http://go.ncsu.edu/strp

Courses:
CS 413 – Introduction to Plant Breeding

Publications

• BBL enzymes exhibit enantiospecific preferences in the biosynthesis of pyridine alkaloids in Nicotiana tabacum L. , PHYTOCHEMISTRY (2024)
• A 2‐year, multi‐county survey of plant‐parasitic nematodes in North Carolina flue‐cured tobacco , Agronomy Journal (2024)
• A Comparison of Three Automated Root-Knot Nematode Egg Counting Approaches Using Machine Learning, Image Analysis, and a Hybrid Model , Plant Disease (2024)
• Effects of Recurrent Selection on Population Structure and Allele Frequencies in the M3S Maize Population , AGRICULTURE-BASEL (2023)
• Engineering Sclareol Production on the Leaf Surface of Nicotiana tabacum , JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY (2024)
• Analysis of alkaloids and reducing sugars in processed and unprocessed tobacco leaves using a handheld near infrared spectrometer , JOURNAL OF NEAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (2023)
• Modified physiology of burley tobacco plants genetically engineered to express Yb₁, a functional EGY enzyme , PLANTA (2023)
• Use of exotic Nicotiana tabacum germplasm for confronting an inverse genetic correlation in flue-cured tobacco , CROP SCIENCE (2023)
• Adaptation of Phytophthora nicotianae to Multiple Sources of Partial Resistance in Tobacco , PLANT DISEASE (2021)
• Adding genome-wide genotypic information to a tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) breeding programme , PLANT BREEDING (2022)