title: Electron microscopic visualization of the cross-bridge movement coupled with ATP hydrolysis in muscle thick filaments in aqueous solution, reminiscences and future prospects.
abstract: Although it has been well established that muscle contraction results from cyclic attachment-detachment between the cross-bridges extending from the thick filaments and the sites on the thin filaments, the movement of the cross-bridges coupled with ATP hydrolysis still remains to be a matter for debate and speculation. The most straightforward way to elucidate this mystery is to record individual cross-bridge movement in response to ATP. Using a gas environmental chamber (EC, or hydration chamber), with which biological specimens retaining their physiological function can be observed under an electron microscope, my coworkers and I succeeded in recording the ATP-induced individual cross-bridge movement in two different kinds of synthetic thick filaments in 1997 and 2008. In the synthetic bipolar filaments consisting of rabbit skeletal muscle myosin, the amplitude of cross-bridge movement exhibits a peak at 5-7.5 nm, and the direction of cross-bridge movement is away from, but not towards, the filament bare region in the absence of thin filaments. After exhaustion of ATP, the cross-bridges return towards their initial position, indicating that the initial cross-bridge state may be analogous to that after completion of power stroke. These results constitute the first visualization of the cross-bridge recovery stroke, indicating that the EC is a powerful tool to open new horizons in the research fields of life sciences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Teikyo University, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan. sugi@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugi
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D003400:Astacoidea / Q000502:physiology; D003285:Contractile Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008854:Microscopy, Electron / Q000379:methods; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009210:Myofibrils / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009218:Myosins / Q000502:physiology; D049880:Mytilus edulis; D011817:Rabbits; D014335:Tropomyosin / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003285:Contractile Proteins; D014335:Tropomyosin; D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D009218:Myosins