
Emma Morrison, PhD
Assistant Professor
Locations
- TBRC C2980
Contact Information
General Interests
Education
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, 2014
BA, Johns Hopkins University, 2008
Biography
Research Interests
The Morrison lab is interested in understanding molecular mechanisms of chromatin regulation, which are key in fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation and provide valuable insight into human health and disease. A complex network of machinery dynamically regulates the organization and accessibility of the human genome within chromatin. This re-organization starts at the level of the nucleosome, the basic subunit of chromatin. The nucleosome is a histone protein-DNA complex, and the N-terminal tails of the histone proteins protrude from the core complex to interact with regulatory machinery. These interactions are often driven by specific histone post-translational modifications (PTMs).
Our recent studies have contributed to recognizing that the histone tails have reduced accessibility to interactions with chromatin regulatory machinery within the nucleosome due to interactions with DNA. These findings suggest that there are other nuclear factors in vivo that modulate the conformation and in turn the accessibility of the tails to regulate interactions with protein machinery that lead to downstream chromatin regulation. We are taking a quantitative, biophysical approach in order to determine the role of the histone tails in chromatin structure and dynamics by studying the conformation and dynamics of the histone tails within nucleosomes. Factors such as histone PTMs and histone variants have the potential to directly regulate histone tail conformation, thereby regulating chromatin structure and modulating accessibility to binding factors.
The lab uses NMR spectroscopy along with a range of other biophysical and biochemical techniques in order to investigate these questions. If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Dr. Morrison.
Publications
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RNA Splicing of the BHC80 Gene Contributes to Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer Progression.
(Li Y, Xie N, Chen R, Lee AR, Lovnicki J, Morrison EA, Fazli L, Zhang Q, Musselman CA, Wang Y, Huang J, Gleave ME, Collins C, Dong X.) Eur Urol. 2019 08;76(2):157-166 PMID: 30910347 03/27/2019
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The C terminus of the bacterial multidrug transporter EmrE couples drug binding to proton release.
(Thomas NE, Wu C, Morrison EA, Robinson AE, Werner JP, Henzler-Wildman KA.) J Biol Chem. 2018 12 07;293(49):19137-19147 PMID: 30287687 PMCID: PMC6295725 10/06/2018
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Reading More than Histones: The Prevalence of Nucleic Acid Binding among Reader Domains.
(Weaver TM, Morrison EA, Musselman CA.) Molecules. 2018 Oct 12;23(10) PMID: 30322003 PMCID: PMC6222470 10/17/2018
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(Morrison EA, Bowerman S, Sylvers KL, Wereszczynski J, Musselman CA.) Elife. 2018 04 12;7 PMID: 29648537 PMCID: PMC5953545 04/13/2018
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New free-exchange model of EmrE transport.
(Robinson AE, Thomas NE, Morrison EA, Balthazor BM, Henzler-Wildman KA.) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 11 21;114(47):E10083-E10091 PMID: 29114048 PMCID: PMC5703289 11/09/2017
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DNA binding drives the association of BRG1/hBRM bromodomains with nucleosomes.
(Morrison EA, Sanchez JC, Ronan JL, Farrell DP, Varzavand K, Johnson JK, Gu BX, Crabtree GR, Musselman CA.) Nat Commun. 2017 07 14;8:16080 PMID: 28706277 PMCID: PMC5519978 07/15/2017
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Asymmetric protonation of EmrE.
(Morrison EA, Robinson AE, Liu Y, Henzler-Wildman KA.) J Gen Physiol. 2015 Dec;146(6):445-61 PMID: 26573622 PMCID: PMC4664823 11/18/2015
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Blocking dynamics of the SMR transporter EmrE impairs efflux activity.
(Dutta S, Morrison EA, Henzler-Wildman KA.) Biophys J. 2014 Aug 05;107(3):613-620 PMID: 25099800 PMCID: PMC4129506 08/08/2014
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EmrE dimerization depends on membrane environment.
(Dutta S, Morrison EA, Henzler-Wildman KA.) Biochim Biophys Acta. 2014 Jul;1838(7):1817-22 PMID: 24680655 PMCID: PMC4061694 04/01/2014
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Transported substrate determines exchange rate in the multidrug resistance transporter EmrE.
(Morrison EA, Henzler-Wildman KA.) J Biol Chem. 2014 Mar 07;289(10):6825-36 PMID: 24448799 PMCID: PMC3945343 01/23/2014
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(Morrison EA, Henzler-Wildman KA.) Biochim Biophys Acta. 2012 Mar;1818(3):814-20 PMID: 22226849 PMCID: PMC3292179 01/10/2012
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Antiparallel EmrE exports drugs by exchanging between asymmetric structures.
(Morrison EA, DeKoster GT, Dutta S, Vafabakhsh R, Clarkson MW, Bahl A, Kern D, Ha T, Henzler-Wildman KA.) Nature. 2011 Dec 18;481(7379):45-50 PMID: 22178925 PMCID: PMC3253143 12/20/2011