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The squid giant synapse (Fig 1) was first recognized by John Zachary Young in 1939. It lies in the stellate ganglion on each side of the midline, at the posterior wall of the squid’s muscular mantle. Activation of this synapse triggers a synchronous contraction of the mantle musculature, causing the forceful ejection of a jet of water from ...
Cross-bridge theory states that actin and myosin form a protein complex (classically called actomyosin) by attachment of myosin head on the actin filament, thereby forming a sort of cross-bridge between the two filaments. The sliding filament theory is a widely accepted explanation of the mechanism that underlies muscle contraction. [6]
The main proteins involved are myosin, actin, and titin. Myosin and actin are the contractile proteins and titin is an elastic protein. The myofilaments act together in muscle contraction, and in order of size are a thick one of mostly myosin, a thin one of mostly actin, and a very thin one of mostly titin. [1] [2]
Sliding filament model of muscle contraction. Cardiac sarcomere structure featuring myosin. Myosin II (also known as conventional myosin) is the myosin type responsible for producing muscle contraction in muscle cells in most animal cell types. It is also found in non-muscle cells in contractile bundles called stress fibers. [18]
A main component in the cytoskeleton that helps show the true function of this muscle contraction is the microfilament. Microfilaments are composed of the most abundant cellular protein known as actin. [10] During contraction of a muscle, within each muscle cell, myosin molecular motors collectively exert forces on parallel actin filaments.
The termination of muscle contraction is followed by muscle relaxation, which is a return of the muscle fibers to their low tension-generating state. [ 1 ] For the contractions to happen, the muscle cells must rely on the change in action of two types of filaments : thin and thick filaments.
During muscle contraction, tropomyosin shifts to expose the myosin-binding site on an actin filament, allowing the interaction between actin and myosin microfilaments to occur. The initiation of contraction involves calcium ions binding to troponin, prompting a reaction that displaces tropomyosin from the actin filament binding sites.
This ring, aptly called the "contractile ring", uses a similar mechanism as muscle fibers where myosin II pulls along the actin ring, causing it to contract. [66] This contraction cleaves the parent cell into two, completing cytokinesis. [66] The contractile ring is composed of actin, myosin, anillin, and α-actinin. [67]