Factors affecting the equatorial X-ray diffraction pattern from contracting frog skeletal muscle

The filament lattice of striated muscle

The filament lattice of striated muscle is an overlapping hexagonal array of thick and thin filaments within which muscle contraction takes place. Its structure can be studied by electron microscopy or X-ray diffraction. With the latter technique, structural changes can be monitored during contraction and other physiological conditions. The lattice of intact muscle fibers can change size through osmotic swelling or shrinking or by changing the sarcomere length of the muscle. Similarly, muscle fibers that have been chemically or mechanically skinned can be compressed with bathing solutions containing very large inert polymeric molecules. The effects of lattice change on muscle contraction in vertebrate skeletal and cardiac muscle and in invertebrate striated muscle are reviewed. The force developed, the speed of shortening, and stiffness are compared with structural changes occurring within the lattice. Radial forces between the filaments in the lattice, which can include electrostatic, Van der Waals, entropic, structural, and cross bridge, are assessed for their contributions to lattice stability and to the contraction process.

A self-induced translation model of myosin head motion in contracting muscle. I. Force-velocity relation and energy liberation

In our previous model, it was assumed that the two heads of myosin act co-operatively in producing force for the sliding of actin filaments relative to myosin filaments. We eliminate the assumption of co-operativity in the present model, following the conclusion by Harada and co-workers that a co-operative interaction between the two heads of myosin is not essential in producing actin filament movement. We assume that (1) a myosin head activated by ATP hydrolysis binds to the thin filament at a definite angle and does not do the power stroke, i.e. does not change its orientation during attachment, (2) a potential of force acting on the myosin head is induced around the thin filament when an ATP-activated myosin head binds to an actin molecule in the thin filament, and (3) the potential remains for a while after detachment of the myosin head and statistically controls the direction of thermal motion of the myosin head, so that the myosin head translates toward the Z-line as a statistical average. We did calculations on these assumptions with a mean tension approximation and got the following results. (a) The calculated force-velocity relation in muscle contraction is in fairly good agreement with experimental observation, including the give phenomenon that lengthening velocity becomes very large for a force about twice the isometric tension. (b) The calculated rate of energy liberation during muscle contraction as a function of load on muscle is in good agreement with experimental results. (c) The calculated distance over which a myosin molecule moves along the thin filament during one ATP hydrolysis can be more than 60 nm under unloaded conditions.

Time-resolved x-ray study of effect of sinusoidal length change on tetanized frog muscle

Time-resolved x-ray diffraction studies were done on frog skeletal muscles with synchrotron radiation by applying sinusoidal length changes of frequency 10 Hz and amplitude approximately 1% to isometrically contracting muscles at approximately 17 degrees C. Distinct periodic intensity changes were observed in the 14.3-nm myosin meridional reflection and the equatorial 1,0 and 1,1 reflections. Response of the 14.3-nm reflection to the sinusoidal length change was nonlinear, as evidenced by a large second harmonic in its oscillatory intensity change, whereas the response of the equatorial 1,1 reflection was closely linear, as evidenced by almost sinusoidal intensity change. Intensity change of the 1,0 reflection was nearly antiphase to that of the 1,1 reflection. Integral widths of the 14.3-nm meridional reflection measured along the meridian and of the equatorial 1,1 reflection remained almost constant during tension development, while that of the 1,0 reflection tended to decrease. The widths of the 14.3-nm meridional reflection perpendicular to the meridian and of the equatorial 1,0 reflection appeared to undergo oscillatory changes in response to the sinusoidal length changes.