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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] Types of muscle tissue are striated skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle, obliquely striated muscle (found in some invertebrates), and non-striated smooth muscle. [3]
These proteins are organized into thick, thin, and elastic myofilaments, which repeat along the length of the myofibril in sections or units of contraction called sarcomeres. Muscles contract by sliding the thick myosin, and thin actin myofilaments along each other.
The thin myofilaments are filaments of mostly actin and the thick filaments are of mostly myosin and they slide over each other to shorten the fiber length in a muscle contraction. The third type of myofilament is an elastic filament composed of titin , a very large protein.
Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils.It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of over 100 μM; its mass is roughly 42 kDa, with a diameter of 4 to 7 nm.
The sarcolemma (sarco (from sarx) from Greek; flesh, and lemma from Greek; sheath), also called the myolemma, is the cell membrane surrounding a skeletal muscle fibre or a cardiomyocyte. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It consists of a lipid bilayer and a thin outer coat of polysaccharide material ( glycocalyx ) that contacts the basement membrane .
T-tubules (transverse tubules) are extensions of the cell membrane that penetrate into the center of skeletal and cardiac muscle cells.With membranes that contain large concentrations of ion channels, transporters, and pumps, T-tubules permit rapid transmission of the action potential into the cell, and also play an important role in regulating cellular calcium concentration.
In electron micrographs of cross-striated muscle, the Z-line (from the German "zwischen" meaning between) appears in between the I-bands as a dark line that anchors the actin myofilaments. Surrounding the Z-line is the region of the I-band (for isotropic). I-band is the zone of thin filaments that is not superimposed by thick filaments (myosin).
Troponin is a component of thin filaments (along with actin and tropomyosin), and is the protein complex to which calcium binds to trigger the production of muscular force. Troponin has three subunits, TnC, TnI, and TnT, each playing a role in force regulation.