Myosin filament sliding through the Z-disc relates striated muscle fibre structure to function.

ABSTRACT: Striated muscle contraction requires intricate interactions of microstructures. The classic textbook assumption that myosin filaments are compressed at the meshed Z-disc during striated muscle fibre contraction conflicts with experimental evidence. For example, myosin filaments are too stiff to be compressed sufficiently by the muscular force, and, unlike compressed springs, the muscle fibres do not restore their resting length after contractions to short lengths. Further, the dependence of a fibre's maximum contraction velocity on sarcomere length is unexplained to date. In this paper, we present a structurally consistent model of sarcomere contraction that reconciles these findings with the well-accepted sliding filament and crossbridge theories. The few required model parameters are tak

SUBMITTER: Rode C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4810864 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature