title: Force generation and temperature-jump and length-jump tension transients in muscle fibers.
abstract: Muscle tension rises with increasing temperature. The kinetics that govern the tension rise of maximally Ca(2+)-activated, skinned rabbit psoas fibers over a temperature range of 0-30 degrees C was characterized in laser temperature-jump experiments. The kinetic response is simple and can be readily interpreted in terms of a basic three-step mechanism of contraction, which includes a temperature-sensitive rapid preequilibrium(a) linked to a temperature-insensitive rate-limiting step and followed by a temperature-sensitive tension-generating step. These data and mechanism are compared and contrasted with the more complex length-jump Huxley-Simmons phases in which all states that generate tension or bear tension are perturbed. The rate of the Huxley-Simmons phase 4 is temperature sensitive at low temperatures but plateaus at high temperatures, indicating a change in rate-limiting step from a temperature-sensitive (phase 4a) to a temperature-insensitive reaction (phase 4b); the latter appears to correlate with the slow, temperature-insensitive temperature-jump relaxation. Phase 3 is absent in the temperature-jump, which excludes it from tension generation. We confirm that de novo tension generation occurs as an order-disorder transition during phase 2slow and the equivalent, temperature-sensitive temperature-jump relaxation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Rodgers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D011817:Rabbits; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors