Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist

Lab web site: Lewandowski Lab

Areas of Special Interest

Ornamental pathology, virus diseases of ornamentals

Who am I?

I was raised in Northeast Ohio, and have always considered myself a Buckeye. While pursuing my B.S. degree in Biology at the University of Dayton (1985), I had the opportunity to work in the laboratories of two faculty members in the Biology Department whose programs focused on plants. At UD my interest in molecular genetics developed, which set my course for pursuing graduate studies that involved genetics, but focused on microorganisms that interacted with plants. After graduation, I accepted a USDA National Needs Fellowship in Plant Biotechnology at the University of California, Riverside to pursue this goal. My dissertation research focused on the well known Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-tobacco model system to dissect functions of viral proteins in the laboratory of Dr. William O. Dawson. Upon completion of my Ph.D. (1992), I moved to the University of Florida, Citrus Research and Education Center, to continue research on TMV as a system to develop approaches to study more complex citrus viruses. At UF, my group mapped functional viral elements and developed novel types of TMV-based vectors for the transient expression of foreign genes in plants. At UF I had opportunities to collaborate with scientists from other departments on citrus abscission and ARS scientists working on various virus diseases, which led to an interest in more practical issues. One area of collaborative research with Dr. Scott Adkins (USDA-ARS, USHRL, Fort Pierce, Fla), an Ohio State Plant Pathology alumnus, is the study of virus diseases of ornamentals. In particular, we have been attempting to determine the cause of the many symptomatic hibiscus plants in the landscape and retail nurseries. In the process, we have characterized several new viruses. Our labs continue to collaborate on several projects, including virus diseases of importance to the ornamental industry.

In 2005, after a 20 year hiatus, I had the opportunity to return to Ohio. I joined the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University in November 2005 as an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist. My appointment is 50% Research and 50% Extension in the area of plant health management of floriculture and nursery crops. Although I retain research interests in virus diseases, I am looking forward to applying much of my basic research background to more applied projects. My goal is to develop my research and extension program to address some of the key issues affecting Ohio's important green industry. I am currently reacquainting my self with this diverse industry and developing my research program to meet some of the needs of this important Ohio industry.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Adkins, S., Kamenova, A., Chiemsombat, P., Baker, C. A. and Lewandowski, D. J. 2006. Tobamoviruses from hibiscus in Florida and beyond. Acta Hort (accepted)

Adkins, S. and Lewandowski, D. J. 2005. A system to explore Tomato spotted wilt virus gene function. Acta Hort 695, 85-90.

Knapp, E., Danyluk, G. D., Achor, D., and Lewandowski, D. J. 2005. A bipartite Tobacco mosaic virus – defective RNA (dRNA) system to study the role of the N-terminal methyltransferase domain in cell-to-cell movement of dRNAs. Virology 341, 47-58.

Lewandowski, D. J. 2005. Tobamovirus genus. In Virus Taxonomy, Classification and Nomenclature of Viruses: 8th Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Fauquet, C. M., Mayo, M. A., Maniloff, J., and Ball, L. A., Eds. Academic Press, London. 1009-1014.

Lewandowski, D. J. and Adkins, S. 2005. The tubule forming NSm protein of Tomato spotted wilt virus complements cell-to-cell and long distance movement of Tobacco mosaic virus. Virology 342, 26-37.

Adkins, S., Kamenova, I., Achor, D., and Lewandowski, D. J. 2003. Biological and molecular characterization of a novel tobamovirus with a unique host range. Plant Disease 87, 1190-1196.

Verch, T., Lewandowski, D., Schillberg, S., Yusibov, V., Koprowski, H., and Fischer, R. 2002. Antibody expression in plants. In Plant Viruses as Molecular Pathogens. Khan, J. A. and Dijkstra, J., Eds. The Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY. Pp. 425-436.

Adkins, S. and Lewandowski, D. J. 2001. Small-scale isolation of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from protoplasts inoculated with in vitro transcripts. Phytopathology 91, 747-752.

Goregaoker, S., Lewandowski, D. J., and Culver, J. N. 2001. Identification and functional analysis of an interaction between domains of the 126/183-kDa replicase-associated proteins of Tobacco mosaic virus. Virology 282, 320-328.

Knapp, E., Dawson, W. O., and Lewandowski, D. J. 2001. Conundrum of the lack of dRNAs associated with tobamovirus infections: dRNAs that can move are not replicated by the wild-type virus; dRNAs that are replicated by the wild-type virus do not move. J. Virol. 75, 5518-5525.

Knapp, E., Lewandowski, D. J. 2001. Tobacco mosaic virus, not just a single component virus anymore. Mol. Plant Pathol. 2, 117-123.

Lewandowski, D. J. and Dawson, W. O. 2000. Functions of the 126-kDa and 183-kDa proteins of Tobacco mosaic virus. Virology 271, 90-98.

Grdzelishvili, V. Z., Chapman, S. N., Dawson, W. O., and Lewandowski, D. J. 2000. Mapping of the Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein and coat protein subgenomic RNA promoters in vivo. Virology 275, 177-192.

Chandrika, R., Rabindran, S., Lewandowski, D. J., Manjunath, K. L., and Dawson, W. O. 2000. Full-length Tobacco mosaic virus RNAs and defective RNAs have different 3' replication signals. Virology 273,198-209.

Shivprasad, S., Pogue, G. P., Lewandowski, D. J., Hidalgo, J., Donson, J., Grill, L. K., and Dawson, W. O. 1999. Heterologous sequences greatly affect foreign gene expression in Tobacco mosaic virus-based vectors. Virology 255, 312-323.

Satyanarayana, T., Gowda, S., Boyko, V. P., Albiach-Marti, M. R., Mawassi, M., Navas-Castillo, J., Karasev, A. V., Dolja, V., Hilf, M. E., Lewandowski, D. J., Moreno, P., Bar-Joseph, M., Garnsey, S. M., and Dawson, W. O. 1999. An engineered closterovirus RNA replicon and analysis of terminal sequences for replication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 7433-7438.

Burns, J. K., Lewandowski, D. J., Nairn, C. J., and Brown, G. E. 1998. Endo-1,4-β-glucanase gene expression and cell wall hydrolase activities during abscission in Valencia orange. Physiol. Plant. 102, 217-225.

Lewandowski, D. J. and Dawson, W. O. 1998. Deletion of internal sequences results in Tobacco mosaic virus defective RNAs that accumulate to high levels without interfering with replication of the helper virus. Virology 251, 427-437.

Nairn, C.J., Lewandowski, D. J., and Burns, J. K. 1998. Genetics and expression of two groups of pectinesterase genes in Valencia orange. Physiol. Plant. 102, 226-235.

Karasev, A. V., Boyko, V. P., Gowda, S., Nikolaeva, O. V., Hilf, M. E., Koonin, E. V., Niblett, C. L., Cline, K., Gumpf, D. J., Lee, R. F., Garnsey, S. M., Lewandowski, D. J., and Dawson, W. O. 1995. Complete sequence of the Citrus tristeza virus RNA genome. Virology 208, 511‑520.

FUNDING (Last five years)

Lewandowski, D. J. and Adkins, S. Effect of virus infection on hibiscus cutting production and characterization of a newly detected hibiscus-infecting tobamovirus from Florida. The Fred C. Gloeckner Foundation. 2004-2006, $20,000.

Lewandowski, D. J. and Adkins, S. Production of complex value-added products in plants. USDA NRI – Value Added Products. 2002-2006, $195,000.

Lewandowski, D. J. Improvement of plant virus based expression vectors. Large Scale Biology Corp., 2001-2002, $249,388.

Contact Information

Dennis Lewandowski
Office: 475C Kottman Hall

The Ohio State University
Department of Plant Pathology
2021 Coffey Road
Columbus OH 43210-1087

Phone: (614) 292-1293
FAX: (614) 292-4455
E-mail: lewandowski.49@osu.edu