title: Fluctuation of actin sliding over myosin thick filamentsin vitro.
abstract: It is customarily thought that myosin motors act as independent force-generators in both isotonic unloaded shortening as well as isometric contraction of muscle. We tested this assumption regarding unloaded shortening, by analyzing the fluctuation of the actin sliding movement over long native thick filaments from molluscan smooth musclein vitro. This analysis is based on the prediction that the effective diffusion coefficient of actin, a measure of the fluctuation, is proportional to the inverse of the number of myosin motors generating the sliding movement of an actin filament, hence proportional to the inverse of the actin length, when the actions of the motors are stochastic and statistically independent. Contrary to this prediction, we found the effective diffusion coefficient to be virtually independent of, and thus not proportional to, the inverse of the actin length. This result shows that the myosin motors are not independent force-generators when generating the continuous sliding movement of actinin vitroand that the sliding motion is a macroscopic manifestation of the cooperative actions of the microscopic ensemble motors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Noda
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imafuku
authors.affiliation: Kansai Advanced Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe 651-2492, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tawada
keywords: cooperativity; protein motors; synchronization