Fibers and Seketal Muscles

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Each skeletal muscle is composed of bundles of myofibrils. The muscle fibers are composed of units called Sarcomeres. A sarcomere is a a series of thick and thin filaments that overlap longitunially. Where a sacromere meets its neighboring sarcomere, it is called the “z-line” Repeating units of sarcomeres account for the unique banding pattern that is seen in striated muscles. The thick filament in the sarcomere makes up the “A band”. This is in the center of the sarcomere. These thick filaments are made up of myosin. These Myosin molecules have two heads that are attached to a tail. Imagine as if they look like a hammer laying down with the head pointing up. These heads are what bind ATP (the energy source for the fiber) and create a cross bridge with the thin filament.

The thin filaments are anchored to the sarcomere at the Z line. When you see a diagram of the sarcomere, they make up the I band. There are intertwined between the thick filaments within part of the A band. These thin filaments are made up of actin, tropomyosin and troponin. Picture these thin filaments like spirals of thread with little dots of troponin along it. I have included a picture I google imaged to help you imagine a sarcomere:

In this image, you can see the heads on the myosin fiber scattered about.

Here is a picture of the interaction between the two fibers:

These diagrams are a little complicated but just pay attention to what we are talking about.

The troponomysin and troponin are attached to eachother. The tropomyson acts like a block for the myosin head preventing it from attaching to the actin, while the troponin acts as a regulatory protein. When the troponin is exposed to Calcium, it makes the tropomyosin shift out of the way and lets the myosin heads to have access to bind to the actin.

Surrounding these sarcomeres is a structure of channels called Sarcoplasmic reticulum and they are connected to the extracellular space (around the muscle fibers). The T -tubules are an extensive tubular network that opens to the sarcomere. These tubules are located at the junction between the A bands and the I bands. Action potentials travel down these T tubules to the cell interior at the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

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