David Morgan

Title

Associate Professor

Department

Biology Department

Institution

University of West Georgia

dmorgan@westga.edu

Education

Ph.D. Botany, University of Texas at Austin, August 1990
M.S. Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, 1979
B.S. Mississippi State University, 1976 (Summa cum laude)Major: Entomology

Research Interests

Biography

Not mentioned yet

Homepages

Contact Information

678-839-4044

Research

Not mentioned yet.

Cloud List

Including Sequences of Multiple Clones From Most of the Species And a New Classification for Rosaceae. Student Research For Students Who Are Interested in Working on Research With Me There Are a Number of Different Possibilities. Those Who Are Interested in Lab Work May Want to Help With My Plant Systematics Research Which Was Published in 2003. I Have Also Been Asked to Contribute Identification Keys and Descriptions to the Flora of North America for Some of the Genera That I Work On. Rosaceae Investigations of Large Plant Groups Involve Contributions From a Number of People Because They Involve Large Numbers of Species and Often Use Data From Many Different Sources Suggesting That Reticulate Evolution Has Been a Factor in Many Lineages. These Results Indicate That the Evolutionary History of MacHaeranthera and Its Relatives Has Been Extraordinarily Complex Secondary Chemistry With as Many as Seven Occurrences of Reticulate Evolution. There Are Several Evolutionary Processes That Could Have Produced These Results Incorporating Evidence From Morphology Such as Chloroplast DNA Introgression and Hybrid Speciation. Resolving These Questions Requires More Thorough Characterization of Nuclear DNA A New One Is Necessary Suggested Many Relationships That Conflicted With Other Characteristics Such as Fruit Characteristics; Chromosome Number; And Secondary Chemistr And Use the Results to Help Further Resolve the Evolution of MacHaeranthera My Ultimate Objective Is to Determine What Specific Evolutionary Process Produced Each Instance of Reticulate Evolution in MacHaeranthera This Work Should Help Provide a Better Understanding of the Role of Interspecific Hybridization in the Evolution of Plants. The Relationships Suggested by My Research Do Not Conform to Any Previous Classification of MacHaeranthera Therefore One of My Students Completed a Preliminary Investigation of This Spacer 2) Analyze These Data Phylogenetically Reticulate Evolutio We Are Using DNA Sequence Data From Several Nuclear and Chloroplast Genes. I Am Contributing in Two Ways. My First Contribution Consists of Sequence Data From the Chloroplast Gene rbcL. These Sequences Were Generated During the Past Several Years. My Second Contribution Consists of Fruit Characters. There Is a Great Deal of Variation in the Morphology and Anatomy of Fruits in Rosaceae However ITS and ET Some Field Research Topics Include Floristic Inventory or Plant Community Ecology Work. Cytology "Treatments Raising New Questions About the Evolution of MacHaeranthera and Its Relatives. I Have Subsequently Studied the Group With Nuclear Sequence Data From the nrDNA Regions: The Internal and External Transcribed Spacers . The nrDNA Data Supported Several Relationships That Conflicted With Those Supported by cpDNA And My Plans Involve Further Study of the Nuclear Genome. One Approach That I Am Taking Is to Obtain Sequence Data From Other Parts of the Nuclear Genome And Sequencing. There Are Also Several Possibilities in Field Research Including Multiple Chloroplast and Nuclear Genes. I Am Collaborating With Several Other Rosaceae Researchers on a Project to Produce a Phylogeny of the Entire Family to Facilitate More Detailed Study of the Origin and Evolution of Specific Lineages and Specific Characteristics. As Our Primary Source of Characters And Most of the Data Thus Far Have Been Generated by Undergraduate Students Working With Me. We Anticipate That This Collaboration Will Result in at Least One Major Publication Is Showing That Reticulate Evolution Has Had a More Substantial Role Than Previously Thought. My Work in Asteraceae Involves a Group of Plants That Appears to Have Experienced a Significant Amount of Reticulate Evolution. MacHaeranthera and Several Related Genera Make Up a Group in Asteraceae That Is Closely Related to Familiar Plants Such as Asters. I Have Been Studying the Systematics of MacHaeranthera With a Variety of Approaches Employing Evidence From the Chloroplast DNA Phylogen Finding That It Contains Useful Sequence Variation. My Plans for the Next Few Years Are: 1) to Generate a Complete Set of 5S Spacer Sequences From MacHaeranthera With Coauthor R. L. Hartman of the University of Wyomin Conclusions About the Evolution of Specific Aspects of the Family Such as the 5S Ribosomal RNA Gene Spacers. This Year cpDN And I Produced a Revisionary Synthesis of the Genus My Primary Research Is in Phylogenetic Evolution and Systematics The Rose Famil Which Involves DNA Amplification And DNA Sequences. My First Investigation Which Will Include Our Findings on the Phylogeny of Rosaceae In Which the Goals Are to Reconstruct the Evolutionary History of a Group of Organisms and to Find Out How the Organisms and Their Characteristics Have Originated and Changed Over Time. The Plants That I Concentrate on Are in the Families Asteraceae and Rosaceae . Asteraceae For Many Years It Was Thought That Ancient Interspecific Hybridization Had Little Impact on the Evolution of Plants. Recent Evidence The Sunflower Famil And One of Our Goals Is to Identify Patterns of Fruit Evolution in the Family. I Am Responsible for Putting Together a Detailed Data Set of the Variation in Many Fruit Characters. I Am Currently Working on This Project Limited Resolution Phylogenetic Relationships

List of Publications (9)

In 2007

Potter, D., T. Eriksson, R. C. Evans, S. Oh, J. E. Smedmark, D. R. Morgan, M. Kerr, K. R. Robertson, M. Arsenault, T. A. Dickinson and C. S. Campbell. 2007. Phylogeny and classification of Rosaceae. Plant Systematics and Evolution 266: 5-43.
Found on Publication Text

Campbell, C. S., R. C. Evans, D. R. Morgan, T. A. Dickinson and M. P. Arsenault. 2007. Phylogeny of subtribe Pyrinae (formerly the Maloideae, Rosaceae): Limited resolution of a complex evolutionary history. Plant Systematics and Evolution 266: 119-145.
Found on Publication Text

In 2006

Morgan, D. R. and R. L. Hartman. 2006. Treatment of Machaeranthera for the Flora of North America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Found on Publication Text

Morgan, D. R. 2006. Treatments of Psilactis and Dieteria for the Flora of North America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Found on Publication Text

In 2003

Morgan, D. R. and R. L. Hartman. 2003. A synopsis of Machaeranthera (Asteraceae), with recognition of segregate genera. Sida Contributions to Botany, 20: 1387-1416.
Found on Publication Text

Morgan, D. R. 2003. nrDNA external transcribed spacer (ETS) sequence data, reticulate evolution, and the systematics of Machaeranthera (Asteraceae). Systematic Botany 28: 179-190.
Found on Publication Text

In 1999

Soltis, D. E., M. E. Mort, P. S. Soltis, C. Hibsch-Jetter, E. A. Zimmer and D. R. Morgan. 1999. Phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic angiosperm family Podostemaceae inferred from 18S rDNA and rbcL sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 11: 261-272.
Found on Publication Text

In 1997

Morgan, D. R. 1997. Reticulate evolution in Machaeranthera (Asteraceae). Systematic Botany 22: 599-615.
Found on Publication Text

Morgan, D. R. 1997. Decay analysis of large sets of phylogenetic data. Taxon 46: 509-517.
Found on Publication Text

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Colleagues

Thania Barton

University of West Georgia

Daryush ILA

University of West Georgia

Beth Sheppard

University of West Georgia

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