Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Muscle

Support for the lever arm

Nature volume 396, pages 317–318 (1998)Cite this article

On pages 380 and 383 of this issue, Suzuki et al.1 and Dobbie et al.2 describe investigations which support current ideas on the way in which changes in the cross-bridges between the myosin and actin filaments of muscle generate force or shortening.

Length changes in muscle take place by relative sliding of two overlapping sets of filaments, composed respectively of myosin and actin. Tension is generated in the overlap regions by cross-bridges formed by the heads of myosin molecules, which attach to an adjacent actin filament, exert force and detach. Attachment ends when a molecule of ATP binds to the myosin head. This ATP is hydrolysed during the next cycle in steps, some of which are coupled to conformational changes in which the cross-bridge tilts, stretching an elastic component and thus raising the tension.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Presumed shape changes in a representative cross-bridge.

References

  1. Suzuki, Y., Yasunaga, T., Ohkura, R., Wakabayashi, T. & Sutoh, K. Nature 396, 380–383 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dobbie, I. et al. Nature 396, 383–387 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Diaz Baños, F. G., Bordas, J., Lowy, J. & Svensson, A. Biophys. J. 71, 576–589 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Rayment, I. et al. Science 261, 58–65 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ford, L. E., Huxley, A. F. & Simmons, R. M. J. Physiol. 269, 441–515 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Holmes, K. C. Curr. Biol. 7, R112-R118 (1997).

  7. Dominguez, R., Freyzon, Y., Trybus, K. M. & Cohen, C. Cell 94, 559–571 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Getz, E. B., Cooke, R. & Selvin, P. R. Biophys. J. 74, 2451–2458 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Selvin, P. R. & Hearst, J. E. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 91, 10024–10028 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Yagi, N. et al. J. Synch. Rad. 3, 305–312 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Baker, J. E., Brust-Mascher, I., Ramachandran, S., LaConte, L. E. W. & Thomas, D. D. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95, 2944–2949 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Harrington, W. F. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 68, 685–689 (1971).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Howard, J. Nature 389, 561–567 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College, CB2 1TQ, Cambridge, UK

    A. F. Huxley

Authors
  1. A. F. Huxley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huxley, A. Support for the lever arm. Nature 396, 317–318 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24503

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/24503

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing