Structural changes in isometrically contracting insect flight muscle trapped following a mechanical perturbation.

The application of rapidly applied length steps to actively contracting muscle is a classic method for synchronizing the response of myosin cross-bridges so that the average response of the ensemble can be measured. Alternatively, electron tomography (ET) is a technique that can report the structure of the individual members of the ensemble. We probed the structure of active myosin motors (cross-bridges) by applying 0.

Electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction evidence for two Z-band structural states.

In vertebrate muscles, Z-bands connect adjacent sarcomeres, incorporate several cell signaling proteins, and may act as strain sensors. Previous electron microscopy (EM) showed Z-bands reversibly switch between a relaxed, "small-square" structure, and an active, "basketweave" structure, but the mechanism of this transition is unknown. Here, we found the ratio of small-square to basketweave in relaxed rabbit psoas muscle varied with temperature, osmotic pressure, or ionic strength, independent of activation.

X-ray diffraction evidence for myosin-troponin connections and tropomyosin movement during stretch activation of insect flight muscle.

Stretch activation is important in the mechanical properties of vertebrate cardiac muscle and essential to the flight muscles of most insects. Despite decades of investigation, the underlying molecular mechanism of stretch activation is unknown. We investigated the role of recently observed connections between myosin and troponin, called "troponin bridges," by analyzing real-time X-ray diffraction "movies" from sinusoidally stretch-activated Lethocerus muscles.