Chapter 12 Flashcards
Skeletal Muscle
-Skeletal muscles are connected to the bones they move by tough tendons, composed of closely-packed, parallel arrays of [mostly] collagen protein.
contraction is voluntary
As we will see later, contraction of skeletal muscle depends upon stimulation by motor neurons—this is very different from cardiac and smooth muscle, both of which are capable of spontaneous contraction, and are under autonomic control.
Myofiber
single cell, containing multiple bundles of contractile elements (“muscle fiber/cell”)
- run from one end of muscle to another
- multiple bound in a fascicles
- multinucleated (all fully functional), mitochondria, SR, T-tubule
Major elements of a myofiber:
1) Myofibrils (contractile filaments + regulatory prots)
2) Mitochondria
3) Sarcoplasmic reticulum- contains glycogen (storage form for glucose) granules in glycosomes
4) T-tubules- extension of cell membrane that run all the way through muscle cell
Muscle Cell Membrane
sarcolemma
muscles cytoplasm
sarcoplasm
-high concentrations of O2 binding protein = myoglobin
modified ER
sarcoplasmic reticulum
- plays a major role in excitation-contraction coupling –> the myofiber’s storage repository for calcium
- in response to a signal from a motor neuron, it releases calcium into the sarcoplasm for muscle contraction, then takes that calcium back up during relaxation.
what are the muscle contractile units?
myofibrils - bundles of contractile proteins within each muscle cell
Striations
These result from:
a) the regular arrangement of the contractile proteins in a given myofibril
b) the fact that parallel myofibrils are arranged in register with each other
c) the fact that all the myofibers are unbranched, i.e. they’re stacked parallel to each other
-muscle cells arranged in parallel, no branching, long, flattened nuclei = more noticeable striations
Z disc
center of each I band
H band
center of A band with no thin filament overlap
I band
only thin filaments, primarily ACTIN
A band
thick filament + thin filament overlap
thick filament= MYOSIN
Thick vs Thin filaments
Thick= aggregates of myosin—long fibrous “tail” connected to globular “head”
- hundreds of myosin molecules, joined end-to-end, and bundled together, with their “hinged” heads sticking out (form cross-bridge to link with acting to make contractions)
- remain stationary
thin= polymers of actin—made of 300-400 G-actin subunits in double row & twisted to form “double-helix”
-do sliding for contraction
sarcomere
the basic cellular unit of contraction
- A single sarcomere extends from one Z-line (disc) to the next.
- There are about 100,000 sarcomeres in your biceps muscle.
- In 3D, the sarcomere forms a hexagonal pattern
M lines
center of each A band; protein filaments that help hold down thick filaments