The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, excluding bacteria and archaea. It extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is composed of similar proteins in the various organisms. In eukaryotes, it is composed of three main components, microfilaments, intermediate filaments and microtubules, and these are all capable of rapid growth or disassembly dependent on the cell's requirements.
Smooth muscle is an involuntary non-striated muscle, so-called because it has no sarcomeres and therefore no striations. It is divided into two subgroups, single-unit and multiunit smooth muscle. Within single-unit muscle, the whole bundle or sheet of smooth muscle cells contracts as a syncytium.
Microfilaments, also called actin filaments, are protein filaments in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells that form part of the cytoskeleton. They are primarily composed of polymers of actin, but are modified by and interact with numerous other proteins in the cell. Microfilaments are usually about 7 nm in diameter and made up of two strands of actin. Microfilament functions include cytokinesis, amoeboid movement, cell motility, changes in cell shape, endocytosis and exocytosis, cell contractility, and mechanical stability. Microfilaments are flexible and relatively strong, resisting buckling by multi-piconewton compressive forces and filament fracture by nanonewton tensile forces. In inducing cell motility, one end of the actin filament elongates while the other end contracts, presumably by myosin II molecular motors. Additionally, they function as part of actomyosin-driven contractile molecular motors, wherein the thin filaments serve as tensile platforms for myosin's ATP-dependent pulling action in muscle contraction and pseudopod advancement. Microfilaments have a tough, flexible framework which helps the cell in movement.
A myofibril is a basic rod-like organelle of a muscle cell. Muscles are composed of tubular cells called myocytes, known as muscle fibres in striated muscle, and these cells in turn contain many chains of myofibrils. They are created during embryonic development in a process known as myogenesis.
A sarcomere is the smallest functional unit of striated muscle tissue. It is the repeating unit between two Z-lines. Skeletal muscles are composed of tubular muscle cells which are formed during embryonic myogenesis. Muscle fibers contain numerous tubular myofibrils. Myofibrils are composed of repeating sections of sarcomeres, which appear under the microscope as alternating dark and light bands. Sarcomeres are composed of long, fibrous proteins as filaments that slide past each other when a muscle contracts or relaxes. The costamere is a different component that connects the sarcomere to the sarcolemma.
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.
Myosins are a superfamily of motor proteins best known for their roles in muscle contraction and in a wide range of other motility processes in eukaryotes. They are ATP-dependent and responsible for actin-based motility. The term was originally used to describe a group of similar ATPases found in the cells of both striated muscle tissue and smooth muscle tissue. Following the discovery by Pollard and Korn (1973) of enzymes with myosin-like function in Acanthamoeba castellanii, a global range of divergent myosin genes have been discovered throughout the realm of eukaryotes.
Troponin, or the troponin complex, is a complex of three regulatory proteins that are integral to muscle contraction in skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle, but not smooth muscle. Measurements of cardiac-specific troponins I and T are extensively used as diagnostic and prognostic indicators in the management of myocardial infarction and acute coronary syndrome. Blood troponin levels may be used as a diagnostic marker for stroke or other myocardial injury that is ongoing, although the sensitivity of this measurement is low.
Muscle contraction is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle cells. In physiology, muscle contraction does not necessarily mean muscle shortening because muscle tension can be produced without changes in muscle length, such as when holding a heavy book or a dumbbell at the same position. The termination of muscle contraction is followed by muscle relaxation, which is a return of the muscle fibers to their low tension-generating state.
MYH7 is a gene encoding a myosin heavy chain beta (MHC-β) isoform expressed primarily in the heart, but also in skeletal muscles. This isoform is distinct from the fast isoform of cardiac myosin heavy chain, MYH6, referred to as MHC-α. MHC-β is the major protein comprising the thick filament in cardiac muscle and plays a major role in cardiac muscle contraction.
Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that can move along the cytoplasm of animal cells. They convert chemical energy into mechanical work by the hydrolysis of ATP. Flagellar rotation, however, is powered by a proton pump.
Myofilaments are the two protein filaments of myofibrils in muscle cells. The two proteins are myosin and actin and are the contractile proteins involved in muscle contraction. The two filaments are a thick one composed mostly of myosin, and a thin one composed mostly of actin.
Myosin light-chain kinase also known as MYLK or MLCK is a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase that phosphorylates a specific myosin light chain, namely, the regulatory light chain of myosin II.
Myosin light-chain phosphatase, more commonly called myosin phosphatase, is an enzyme that dephosphorylates the regulatory light chain of myosin II. This dephosphorylation reaction occurs in smooth muscle tissue and initiates the relaxation process of the muscle cells. Thus, myosin phosphatase undoes the muscle contraction process initiated by myosin light-chain kinase. The enzyme is composed of three subunits: the catalytic region, the myosin binding subunit (MYPT1), and a third subunit (M20) of unknown function. The catalytic region uses two manganese ions as catalysts to dephosphorylate the light-chains on myosin, which causes a conformational change in the myosin and relaxes the muscle. The enzyme is highly conserved and is found in all organisms’ smooth muscle tissue. While it is known that myosin phosphatase is regulated by rho-associated protein kinases, there is current debate about whether other molecules, such as arachidonic acid and cAMP, also regulate the enzyme.
A myosin light chain is a light chain of myosin. Myosin light chains were discovered by Chinese biochemist Cao Tianqin when he was a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in England.
Protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 12A is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the PPP1R12A gene.
Atrial Light Chain-1 (ALC-1), also known as Essential Light Chain, Atrial is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MYL4 gene. ALC-1 is expressed in fetal cardiac ventricular and fetal skeletal muscle, as well as fetal and adult cardiac atrial tissue. ALC-1 expression is reactivated in human ventricular myocardium in various cardiac muscle diseases, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, ischemic cardiomyopathy and congenital heart diseases.
Heavy meromyosin (HMM) is the larger of the two fragments obtained from the muscle protein myosin II following limited proteolysis by trypsin or chymotrypsin. HMM contains two domains S-1 and S-2, S-1 contains is the globular head that can bind to actin while the S-2 domain projects at and angle from light meromyosin (LMM) connecting the two meromyosin fragments.
The myosin head is the part of the thick myofilament made up of myosin that acts in muscle contraction, by sliding over thin myofilaments of actin. Myosin is the major component of the thick filaments and most myosin molecules are composed of a head, neck, and tail domain; the myosin head binds to thin filamentous actin, and uses ATP hydrolysis to generate force and "walk" along the thin filament. Myosin exists as a hexamer of two heavy chains, two alkali light chains, and two regulatory light chains. The heavy chain can be subdivided into the globular head at the N-terminal and the coiled-coil rod-like tail at the C-terminal, although some forms have a globular region in their C-terminal.
Edwin W. Taylor is an adjunct professor of cell and developmental biology at Northwestern University. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. Taylor received a BA in physics and chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1952; an MSc in physical chemistry from McMaster University in 1955, and a PhD in biophysics from the University of Chicago in 1957. In 2001 Taylor was elected to the National Academy of Scineces in Cellular and Developmental Biology and Biochemistry.
