The ability of myosin to walk along an actin filament may be observed with the aid of an appropriately equipped microscope. Describe how such assays are typically performed. Why is ATP required in these assays? How can such assays be used to determine the direction of myosin movement or the force produced by myosin?

The ability of myosin to walk along an actin filament may be observed with the aid of an appropriately equipped microscope. Describe how such assays are typically performed. Why is ATP required in these assays? How can such assays be used to determine the direction of myosin movement or the force produced by myosin?

Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems (MindTap Course List)

9th Edition

ISBN:9781285866932

Author:Lauralee Sherwood

Publisher:Lauralee Sherwood

Chapter8: Muscle Physiology

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 2TAHL

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Explain the term The sliding-filament assayis used to detect myosin-powered movement.
Myosin II has a duty ratio of 10 percent, and its step size is 8 nm. In contrast, myosin V has a much higher duty ratio (about 70 percent) and takes 36-nm steps as it walks down an actin filament. What differences between myosin II and myosin V account for their different properties?
Certain multi-headed myosins bind cooperatively to actin filaments. The binding interaction is mainly electrostatic in nature, so the presence of additional salt (ions) in solution can interfere with binding; ions will tend to associate with charged residues on the two proteins, blocking electrostatic attractions that would otherwise take place. Briefly describe the expected shape of the binding curve for one of these myosins, and what will happen to the shape when the salt concentration increases.
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Pluripotent stem cells undergo a number of changes as they progress through developmental stages to become the terminally differentiated cell type known as a skeletal muscle myofiber. a) Describe the stages and key anatomic and functional changes that occur during differentiation of myofibers. b) Despite the fact that myofibers are terminally differentiated, muscle can regenerate itself following a trauma or injury. Describe how this can occur.
Why is the proportion of actin within filaments in cells smaller than would be predicted by in vitro experiments?
As mentioned in class, one additional major use of ATP in skeletal muscle (besides powering the myosin heads) is the recycling of calcium ions back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum after depolarization. The resting concentration of Ca++ in the muscle cell cytoplasm is about 50-100 nM, and the spike concentration after depolarization is about 10-20 μΜ. a) Consider a single sarcomere. What is the number of free calcium ions within the sarcomere at rest? What is the number of free calcium ions after depolarization? b) The major ion pump responsible for calcium ion recycling is SERCA (sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase). SERCA uses one molecule of ATP to pump two calcium ions, and the resting level can be restored in about 10-20 ms. How many molecules of ATP are used in a single sarcomere for pumping calcium in a single "twitch"? c) Assume that a single "twitch" is sufficient to drive one sarcomere from its fully extended length (about 2.5 µm) to its fully contracted length (about 1…
Describe the movement of myosin along an actin filament. Outline the primary molecular steps and explain how this process is used by cells. How many actin monomers within an actin filament would a myosin molecule need to ratchet in order to contract a cell by approximately 1 um? How fast could a non-muscle cell make this contraction compared to a muscle cell if the relative rates of myosin walks on F-actin are 4.5 um/sec and 0.04 um/sec for myosin II and I respectively?
The concentration of actin in cells is 50–100 timesgreater than the critical concentration observed for pureactin in a test tube. How is this possible? What prevents theactin subunits in cells from polymerizing into filaments?Why is it advantageous to the cell to maintain such a largepool of actin subunits?
The sliding-filament model of skeletal-muscle contraction assumes a sliding or slipping of interdigitating filaments of actin and myosin. Electron micrographs show that during contraction the actin and my-osin filaments remain of constant length while the distance between Z lines shortens. Explain how this happens in terms of the molecular structure of the muscle filaments. What is the role of regulatory pro-teins (troponin and tropomyosin) in contraction?
There are no known motor proteins that move along intermediate filaments, in contrast to the variety of such proteins that associate with microtubules and actin filaments. What characteristic of intermediate filaments, in their polymerized form, might explain the absence of associated motor proteins? Briefly explain your reasoning.
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