Some problems of the physical and physico-chemical bases of muscle contraction
The present short review are given the results of the work carried out in the Laboratory concerned with the structural apparatus of muscle contraction or with the enzymic properties of the substrate and the energetics of muscles contraction, studying muscle protein properties and models on the one hand and living muscle fibres on the other.
Abstract
In the present short review are given the results of the work carried out in our Laboratory concerned either with the structural apparatus of muscle contraction or with the enzymic properties of the substrate and the energetics of muscle contraction. It seemed important to consider these problems in two aspects simultaneously, studying muscle protein properties and models on the one hand and living muscle fibres on the other. In the work of Frank, Lemazhikhin & Vazina (1964 a, b), when studying small-angle diffraction of X-rays, a clear discrete reflexion pattern was obtained from concentrated solutions of fibrillar actin. As can be seen from the small-angle X-ray pattern, there are 11 reflexions in the region 240 to 10 Å. We succeeded in observing discrete scattering at protein concentrations as small as 2.5 %. Under the polarization microscope the sample behaves as a polycrystal with the region of heterogeneity of the order of 0·1 mm.