Peter Chantler
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Peter is Professor and Chair of Veterinary Cell and Molecular Biology and directs the Graduate (Accelerated) BVetMed transitional year course. He is also a module leader on the Gateway course and leads units within the BVetMed and BScBioVetSci courses. Peter is the International Tutor for the Camden Campus. His research interests focus on regulation of molecular motors during muscle contraction and cell motility.
Biography
Peter has been a Professor at the Royal Veterinary College since his arrival in 1993, having worked in the USA for a similar period of time. A graduate of the University of London, he obtained his first class honours BSc degree in Biochemistry from Bedford College and a PhD in Biophysics from King’s College. He then spent one year teaching at Tri-Chandra College in Kathmandu, Nepal and another year on a research fellowship at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) in London.
Moving to the States in 1975 he became Senior Research Fellow in the department of Biology at Brandeis University, a position funded, sequentially, by prestigious fellowships from the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America and the British Heart Foundation. In 1983 Peter joined the faculty of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, working in the department of Anatomy and Neuroscience; he was promoted to Full Professor with tenure in 1989. During his time in Philadelphia Peter was awarded with an Established Investigatorship of the American Heart Association.
Peter received a DSc from the University of London in 2002 in cell and molecular biology for his contributions to the fields of muscle contraction and cell motility.
Research
Peter’s research interests are broadly focused on the roles of myosin motors in muscle contraction and cell motility, centering on myosin-linked regulation and the divergent functional roles of neuronal myosins. These actin-dependent motors are found in all mammalian cells and are critical to the functioning of many cellular processes; an understanding of their roles and regulation is of fundamental importance for many different cellular processes.
Early work, resulting in a physico-chemical description of the fundamental interaction between actin monomers and myosin heads grew into an interest as to how this interaction is controlled, especially in systems lacking regulatory proteins typically found in striated skeletal muscle. This is exemplified by the mechanism found in the striated adductor muscles of scallops – now a model system for myosin-linked regulation –where it was determined that regulation was driven solely by structural features within each myosin molecule. This model was developed by Andrew Szent-Gyorgyi at Brandeis University, in whose laboratory Peter spent his postdoctoral years, but has remained an interest throughout Peter’s career, pursued both in his own laboratory and through international collaborations. Techniques employed include ultra-pure preparations of regulated molecules, labeling with specific fluorescence tags for use in microscopy and spectroscopic techniques such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), as well as a variety of structural approaches, most recently using single particle analysis in collaboration with Peter Knight at Leeds University.
Myosins found in neuronal cells are also regulated by myosin-linked mechanisms. Additionally, different myosin isoforms have evolved in these non-sarcomeric environments, each exhibiting subtle structural differences, which confer distinctive force-producing roles for each myosin type. Peter’s work in this area, beginning in Philadelphia and continuing to the present, was key to the establishment of these basic tenets. In particular, the roles that the three non-sarcomeric, conventional myosins (2A, 2B & 2C) play in neuronal cells were characterised with respect to axonal outgrowth and cell adhesion. Techniques employed include isoform-specific antisense knock-down of myosins, immunofluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy.
Teaching
Peter has taught all things cell and molecular in the pre-clinical years since arriving at college. He is Director of the Graduate (Accelerated) BVetMed transitional year (aka Graduate and Transfer year (G&T)) and is International Tutor at the Camden campus; as such, he is actively involved in the recruitment of students, especially from North America. Additionally, Peter currently teaches on the Gateway and BScBioVetSci combined course where he is Module Leader of “The Living Cell”, and on the “Principles” strand of the BVetMed.
Selected Publications
Jung, H.S., Billington, N., Thirumurugan, K., Salzameda, B., Cremo, C.R., Chalovich, J., Chantler, P.D. & Knight, P.J. 2011. Role of the tail in the regulated state of myosin 2. Journal of Molecular Biology. 408. 863-878. PMID: 21419133.
Chantler, P.D., Wylie, S.R., Wheeler-Jones, C.P. & McGonnell, I.M. 2010. Conventional Myosins – Unconventional Functions. Biophysical Reviews. 2. 67-82. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12551-010-0030-7
Oikonomopoulou, I., Patel, H., Watson, P. & Chantler, P.D. 2009. Relocation of myosin and actin, kinesin and tubulin in the acrosome reaction of bovine spermatozoa. Reproduction, Fertility & Development 21. 364-376. PMID: 19210928
Wylie, S.R. & Chantler, P.D. 2008. Myosin IIC: A third myosin motor driving neuronal dynamics. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 19. 3956-3968. PMID: 18614800
Jung, H.S., Burgess, S.A., Billington, N., Colegrave, M., Patel, H., Chalovich, J.M., Chantler, P.D. & Knight, P.J. 2008. Conservation of the regulated structure of folded myosin 2 in species separated by at least 600 million years of independent evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (U.S.A.). 105. 6022-6026. PMID: 18413616
Sung, J.M.L., Chantler, P.D. & Lloyd, D.H. 2006. The accessory gene regulator locus of Staphylococcus intermedius. Infection & Immunity. 74. 2947-2956. PMID: 16622233
Azzu, V., Yadin, D., Patel, H., Fraternali, F., Chantler, P.D. & Molloy, J.E. 2006. Calcium regulates of scallop muscle by changing myosin flexibility. European Biophysics Journal. 35. 302-312. PMID: 16404592
Chantler, P.D. 2006. Scallop adductor muscles: Structure and function. In "Scallops: Biology, Ecology and Aquaculture". S.E. Shumway & Parsons, G.J. Eds. Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science. 35. 229-316.
Vega-Riveroll, L.J., Wylie, S.R., Loughna, P.T., Parson, S.H. & Chantler, P.D. 2005. Nonmuscle myosins IIA and IIB are present in adult motor nerve terminals. NeuroReport. 16. 1143-1146. PMID: 16012337
Chantler, P.D. & Wylie, S.R. 2003. Elucidation of the separate roles of conventional myosin isoforms during neurite outgrowth, adhesion and retraction. IEE Proceedings in Nanobiotechnology. 150. 111-125. PMID: 16468940
Sellers, J.R., Wang, F. & Chantler, P.D. 2003. Trifluoperazine inhibits the MgATPase activity and in vitro motility of conventional and unconventional myosins. Journal of Muscle Research & Cell Motility. 24. 579-585. PMID: 14870973
Wylie, S.R. & Chantler, P.D. 2003. Myosin IIA drives neurite retraction. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 14. 4654-4666. PMID: 12960431
Colegrave, M., Patel, H., Offer, G. & Chantler, P.D. 2003. Evaluation of the symmetric model for myosin-linked regulation: Effect of site-directed mutations in the regulatory light chain on scallop myosin. Biochemical Journal. 374. 89-96. PMID: 12765546
Wylie, S.R. & Chantler, P.D. 2001. Separate but linked functions of conventional myosins modulate adhesion and neurite outgrowth. Nature Cell Biology. 3. 88-92. PMID: 11146631
Janes, D., Patel, H. & Chantler, P.D. 2000. Primary structure of myosin from the striated adductor muscle of the Atlantic scallop, Pecten maximus, and expression of the regulatory domain. Journal of Muscle Research & Cell Motility. 21. 415-422. PMID: 11129432
Patel, H., Margossian, S.S. & Chantler, P.D. 2000. Locking regulatory myosin in the off-state with trifluoperazine. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 275. 4880-4888. PMID: 10671524
Wylie, S.R., Wu, P., Patel, H. & Chantler, P.D. 1998. A conventional myosin motor drives neurite outgrowth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (U.S.A.). 95. 12967-12972. PMID: 9789024
Li, D., Miller, M. & Chantler, P.D. 1994. Association of a cellular myosin II with anionic phospholipids and the neuronal plasma membrane. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (U.S.A.). 91. 853-857. PMID: 8302857
Miller, M., Bower, E., Levitt, P., Li, D. & Chantler, P.D. 1992. Myosin II distribution in neurons is consistent with a role in growth cone motility but not synaptic vesicle mobilization. Neuron. 8. 25-44. PMID: 1730005