Microstructure And Contraction Flashcards
What type of control is smooth muscle under?
Involuntary control
What part of the nervous system does smooth muscle act under?
Autonomic nervous system
What type of control is the skeletal muscle under?
Voluntary control
What does skeletal muscle do?
contract to bring about movement
What connects bone to muscle
A tendon
What are skeletal muscles usually attached to?
Bones
What is the microstructure of a muscle? - 5
Myofilaments => Myofibril => Myofibre => Fascicles => Muscle
What are muscle fasciculus surrounded by?
Perimysium
What are myofibres/muscle fibres surrounded by?
Endomysium
What surrounded the bundles of muscles fascicles to hold them together?
Epimysium
What is the nucleus state of muscle fibers?
Multinucleate
What is the plasma membrane that covers the myofibres called?
Sarcolemma
What is found in the sarcoplasm?
myoglobin and mitochondria
What is the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
Network of fluid filled tubules regulating intracellular calcium concentration for contraction and relaxation
What is one repeating unit of a myofibril called?
A sarcomere
What two proteins do myofibril consist of?
Actin and myosin
What is the thin filament called
Actin
Thick filaments are
Myosin
What makes up the dark portion of the light and dark bands?
Myosin
What separates sarcomere?
Dense Z protein discs
What is the I band?
The light bands with thin actin filaments
Do myofilaments extend the length of the myofibres?
No
What causes muscle contraction?
Movement of actin filaments over the myosin filaments, which shortens the length of the sarcomere
How many heads does myosin have?
Two globular heads
What forms the single tail of myosin?
Two alpha helices
What forms a myosin filament?
The tails of several hundred molecules
What two other molecules do actin filaments contain?
Troponin and tropomyosin
What shape are actin molecules twisted into?
Helix
What happens to the I band when the muscle contracts?
Shortens
What happens to the A band during contraction?
Stays the same length
What is the A band?
The dark band
What happens to the distance between the Z discs during muscle contraction?
Shortenes
Describe the initiation of muscle contraction - 7 steps
- Action potential arrives at end of motor neurone
- Voltage gated Ca2+ channels open
- Ca2+ enters pre-synaptic terminal
- Triggers the exosytosis is of vesicles
- ACh released into the cleft
- Binds to receptors => generates action potential
- local currents flow from depolarised region to adjacent region, allowing AP to spread along the surface of the muscle fibre membrane
How is ACh broken down?
Using acetylcholine esterase
Describe the activation of muscle contraction - 8 steps
- AP propagates along surface and into T tubules
- Dihydropyridine (DHP) receptors in T tubule membranes sense change in voltage and changes shape of the protein linked to ryanodine receptor
- Ryanodine receptor then opens and releases Ca2+ out into space around filaments
- Ca2+ binds to troponin => causes tropomyosin to move, exposing the myosin head binding site
- Ca2+ is then actively transported into the sarcoplasmic reticulum
- Charged myosin head binds to exposed site on actin filament => binding causes the myosin head to pivot pulling the actin filament towards centre of sarcomere
- ATP binds which causes the myosin head to be released
- ATP hydrolysis provides energy to recharge the myosin head
What receptor detects the change in voltage when an action potential arrives at the T tubule
Dihydropyridine
What is the DHP receptor bound to?
Ryanodine receptor
What does Ca2+ bind to on the actin filament?
Troponin
What is covering the myosin binding site?
Tropomyosin
What is the power stroke?
The pivoting of the the myosin head to slide the actin chain over the myosin filament
What binds to the myosin head to charge the myosin head to move?
ATP
What is used to “recharge” the myosin head for more contraction?
ATP hydrolysis to make ADP + Pi
Where is neural control of muscle contraction - 2
Upper motor neurone in the brain to lower motor neurones in the brainstem or spinal cord
What is a motor unit?
A single motor neurone together with all the fibers that it innervates
How many muscle fibres do each motor neurone supply on average?
600
What happens when a single motor neurone is stimulated?
All the muscle fibers in that motor unit will contract