Garry Morgan
Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
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Biography
B.Sc. University of Leicester 1975; PhD University of Leicester 1978; Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Washington 1978-1983; Lecturer, University of Nottingham 1984.
Research Summary
Functional organisation of the oocyte nucleus: Major advances in understanding how gene expression is controlled in the nuclei of eukaryotic cells have been made recently along two broad fronts:… read more
Recent Publications
MORGAN, G.T., 2008. Working with oocyte nuclei: cytological preparations of active chromatin and nuclear bodies from amphibian germinal vesicles. Methods in Molecular Biology. 463, 55-66
MORGAN, G.T., 2007. Localized co-transcriptional recruitment of the multifunctional RNA-binding protein CELF1 by lampbrush chromosome transcription units Chromosome Research. 15(8), 985-1000
Current Research
Functional organisation of the oocyte nucleus: Major advances in understanding how gene expression is controlled in the nuclei of eukaryotic cells have been made recently along two broad fronts: First has been the realisation that the multiple steps of gene expression are spatially and temporally integrated via the assembly of huge molecular machines that are capable of carrying out the wide array of tasks required to produce fully functional mRNA molecules. Secondly it has become apparent that the processes of nuclear gene expression and their regulation are intimately connected with and dependent upon the dynamic structural organisation of the nucleus.
We are exploiting the unique features of the giant nuclei found in amphibian oocytes to explore the relationship between gene expression and nuclear organisation. A combination of factors, such as their massive size (about 0.5 mm), high rates of gene activity and the ease with which nuclear contents can be prepared in a spread-out form, mean oocyte nuclei provide structures that can be studied in extraordinary levels of morphological detail. The best known of these structures are the giant lampbrush chromosomes, which display fixed loops of DNA that are transcribed at far greater rates than the genes of somatic nuclei and that, uniquely, allow the resolution of transcription sites using the light microscope. We are using the approaches of molecular cell biology to investigate the composition of the transcription elongation complexes transcribing loop DNA and the molecular events that occur on their attached nascent transcripts.
In addition it has recently become clear that one crucial organisational principle of the nucleus is its subdivision into distinct compartments or domains, some of which are manifest as morphologically definable but non-membrane bound organelles or bodies. We are trying to understand the functions of the various nuclear bodies found in oocyte nuclei by investigating their relationships with different classes of nuclear proteins.
References
Smith, A.J., Ling, Y. and Morgan, G.T. (2003) Subnuclear localization and Cajal body targeting of transcription elongation factor TFIIS in amphibian oocytes. Mol. Biol. Cell 14: 1255-1267.
Morgan, G.T. (2002) Lampbrush chromosomes: new insights into principles of nuclear structure and function. Chromosome Res. 10: 177-200.
Morgan, G.T., Doyle, O., Murphy, C. and Gall, J.G. (2000) RNA polymerase II in Cajal bodies of amphibian oocytes. J. Struct. Biol. 129: 258-268.
Labhart, P. and Morgan, G.T. (1998) Identification of novel genes encoding transcription elongation factor TFIIS (TCEA) in vertebrates: conservation of three distinct TFIIS isoforms in frog, mouse and human. Genomics 52: 278-288.