The binding interactions that maintain excitation-contraction coupling junctions in skeletal muscle.

ABSTRACT: Calcium for contraction of skeletal muscles is released via tetrameric ryanodine receptor (RYR1) channels of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), which are assembled in ordered arrays called couplons at junctions where the SR abuts T tubules or plasmalemma. Voltage-gated Ca²⁺ (Ca_V1.1) channels, found in tubules or plasmalemma, form symmetric complexes called Ca_V tetrads that associate with and activate underlying RYR tetramers during membrane depolarization by conveying a conformational change. Intriguingly, Ca_V tetrads regularly skip every other RYR tetramer within the array; therefore, the RYRs underlying tetrads (named V), but not the voltage sensor-lacking (C) RYRs, should be activated by depolarization. Here we hypothesize that the checkerboard

SUBMITTER: Rios E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6445584 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature