Igor Morozov

MY RESEARCH VISION

The underlying mechanisms that dictate eukaryotic life, disease, and death are bound by the central dogma of molecular biology. Thus, regulation of gene expression is the result of the combined control of mRNA production and function. Improper regulation of gene expression can lead to many defects and disorders. Consequently, understanding the fundamental mechanisms of gene expression has become a dynamic subfield of genetic diseases and medicine. The aim of my research is to investigate the coordinated regulation of crucial cellular processes such as translation, mRNA modification, quality control, cellular compartmentalisation of RNA and decay. Isolation of research in these areas has left big gaps in our understanding into how all these events are linked to and regulate each other.

Lecturer

Building: James Starley

Room: JS171

Email: ab6069@coventry.ac.uk

BIOGRAPHY

I have over 20 years’ experience of studying the regulation of gene expression in several biological systems. My PhD led to the first description of a system for large-scale production of proteins in vitro. This included a coupled transcription-translation system (four patents filed) and a replication-translation process (two patents filed) that have been licensed to Ambion and Promega and are used worldwide. It also led to me receiving the prestigious European Academia Prize in Medicine and Biology for young scientists in 1995 and in 2006 I was awarded a personal fellowship by The Austrian Research Council to conduct my research into RNA degradation at BOKU University, Vienna. Since then, I have worked at CNRS (France), Penn State University (USA) and the University of Liverpool. My research into gene expression systems during my tenure at the University of Liverpool has resulted in the characterisation of a specific mechanism by which the nitrogen metabolite signalling pathways are controlled in A. nidulans as well as discovery a new regulatory pathway of gene expression. This work is of a global nature, will make a major contribution to refining models of gene expression and regulation.

SELECTED OUTPUTS

• Morozov, I., Ugarov, V.I., Chetverin, A.B., and Spirin, A.S. (1993) 'Synergism in replication and translation of messenger RNA in a cell-free system'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 90 (20), 9325-0329.
• Morozov, I.Y., Jones, M.G., Razak, A.A., Rigden, D.J., and Caddick, M.X. (2010) 'CUCU modification of mRNA promotes decapping and transcript degradation in Aspergillus nidulans'. Molecular and Cellular Biology 30 (2), 460-469.
• Morozov, I.Y., Jones, M.G., Gould, P.D., Crome, V., Wilson, J.B., Hall, A.J., Rigden, D.J., and Caddick, M.X. (2012) 'mRNA 3' tagging is induced by nonsense-mediated decay and promotes ribosome dissociation'. Molecular and Cellular Biology 32 (13), 2585-2595.
• Morozov, I., Martinez, M.G., Jones, M.G., and Caddick, M.X. (2000) 'A defined sequence within the 3' UTR of the areA transcript is sufficient to mediate nitrogen metabolite signalling via accelerated deadenylation'. Molecular Microbiology 37, 1248-1257. 
• Caddick, M.X., Jones, M.G., van Tonder, J.M., Le Cordier, H., Narendja, F., Strauss, J., and Morozov, I. (2006) 'Opposing signals differentially regulate transcript stability in Aspergillus nidulans'. Molecular Microbiology 62, 509-519.
• Morozov, I., Galbis-Martinez, M., Jones, M.G., and Caddick, M.X. (2001) 'Characterization of nitrogen metabolite signalling in Aspergillus via the regulated degradation of areA mRNA'. Molecular Microbiology 42, 269-277.
• Ryabova, L.A., Morozov, I., and Spirin, A.S. (1998) 'Continuous-flow cell-free translation, transcription-translation, and replication-translation systems'. Methods in Molecular Biology 77, 179-193. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-397-X
• Fitzgibbon, G.J., Morozov, I., Jones, M.G., and Caddick, M.X. (2006) 'Nonsense-mediated mRNA Decay Mutation in Aspergillus nidulans'. Eukaryotic Cell 5, 1838-1846.
• Krol, K., Morozov, I.Y., Jones, M.G., Wyszomirski, T., Weglenski, P., Dzikowska, A., and Caddick, M.X. (2013) 'RrmA regulates the stability of specific transcripts in response to both nitrogen source and oxidative stress'. Molecular Microbiology 89 (5), 975-988.
• Wagner, D., Schmeinck, A., Mos, M., Morozov, I.Y., Caddick, M.X., and Tudzynski, B. (2010) 'The bZIP transcription factor MeaB mediates nitrogen metabolite repression at specific loci'. Eukaryotic Cell 9 (10), 1588-1601.

SELECTED PROJECTS

• Nitrogen metabolite signalling in Aspergillus nidulans. Funded by BBSRC: The aim of the project was to study the molecular mechanisms which govern nitrogen metabolite signalling.

• Co-ordination of nitrate and nitrogen metabolite signalling at the level of transcript stability. Funded by BBSRC: The aim of the project was to identify the molecular mechanism which coordinates both regulated mRNA degradation and stabilisation.

• Proteomic lead analysis of nitrogen regulation and signalling in Aspergillus nidulans. Funded by BBSRC: The aim of the project was to study the cellular proteome in response to nitrogen availability.

• Regulating nitrogen metabolism in Aspergillus: proteomes, transcriptomes and RNA stability. Funded by BBSRC: The aim of the project was to utilise proteomics to identify the key proteins involved in the regulated mRNA stability.

• Regulated Transcript Stability. Funded by BBSRC: The aim of the project was to study the mRNA decay machinery in response to environmental changes.

• Comparative Genomic Analysis of Aspergillus Regulatory Elements. Funded by BBSRC: The aim was to utilise the available genomic resources from multiple Aspergillus species to direct the analysis of gene expression.

• Stability as a molecular switch in nitrogen efficiency. Personal Fellowship funded by the ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Austria: The aim of the project was to characterise the mechanisms which regulate PopB function in response to nitrogen metabolite and nitrate signalling.

• EU FP6 Marie Curie Host Fellowships for Early Stage Training SENSIBLE. Funded by EU: The aim of the project is to study subcellular localisation of specific transcription factors in Aspergillus nidulans in response to nitrogen availability.

• Continuous flow cell-free coupled transcription-translation and replication-translation systems. Funded by Russian Academy of Science: The aim of the project was to develop a new generation of the cell-free system for industrial protein production.