[Possible structure of myosin filaments in vertebrate striated muscle].
A 3-D molecular packing of the thick filament is proposed, which is based on the results of a study of the geometrical possibilities of packing together molecules of definite size into a helical filament with definite coordinates of cross-bridges (heads of molecules). There are 18 molecules in the cross-section of the suggested model of the thick filament, 6 in the inner and 12 in the outer hexagonal layer. The helical line of molecules in the outer layer has a pitch of 12 times 14.3 equals 171.6 nm; the tails of the molecules in the inner layer are parallel to the axis of the filament. As the thin filament has a right screw sense (Depue, Rice. 1965), and our rotatory sliding mechanism of contraction requires certain rotatory contacts between the corss-bridges of both filaments, the molecules in the thick filament should have a left screw sense.
D000818:Animals; D008961:Models, Structural; D009132:Muscles / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009218:Myosins
D009218:Myosins
O vozmozhnoĭ strukture niti miozina poperechno-polosatoĭ myshtsy pozvonochnogo