Structural changes in isometrically contracting insect flight muscle trapped following a mechanical perturbation.

The application of rapidly applied length steps to actively contracting muscle is a classic method for synchronizing the response of myosin cross-bridges so that the average response of the ensemble can be measured. Alternatively, electron tomography (ET) is a technique that can report the structure of the individual members of the ensemble. We probed the structure of active myosin motors (cross-bridges) by applying 0.5% changes in length (either a stretch or a release) within 2 ms to isometrically contracting insect flight muscle (IFM) fibers followed after 5-6 ms by rapid freezing against a liquid helium cooled copper mirror. ET of freeze-substituted fibers, embedded and thin-sectioned, provides 3-D cross-bridge images, sorted by multivariate data analysis into ~40 classes, distinct in average structure, population size and lattice distribution. Individual actin subunits are resolved facilitating quasi-atomic modeling of each class average to determine its binding strength (weak or strong) to actin. ~98% of strong-binding acto-myosin attachments present after a length perturbation are confined to "target zones" of only two actin subunits located exactly midway between successive troponin complexes along each long-pitch helical repeat of actin. Significant changes in the types, distribution and structure of actin-myosin attachments occurred in a manner consistent with the mechanical transients. Most dramatic is near disappearance, after either length perturbation, of a class of weak-binding cross-bridges, attached within the target zone, that are highly likely to be precursors of strong-binding cross-bridges. These weak-binding cross-bridges were originally observed in isometrically contracting IFM. Their disappearance following a quick stretch or release can be explained by a recent kinetic model for muscle contraction, as behaviour consistent with their identification as precursors of strong-binding cross-bridges. The results provide a detailed model for contraction in IFM that may be applicable to contraction in other types of muscle.

Electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction evidence for two Z-band structural states.

In vertebrate muscles, Z-bands connect adjacent sarcomeres, incorporate several cell signaling proteins, and may act as strain sensors. Previous electron microscopy (EM) showed Z-bands reversibly switch between a relaxed, "small-square" structure, and an active, "basketweave" structure, but the mechanism of this transition is unknown. Here, we found the ratio of small-square to basketweave in relaxed rabbit psoas muscle varied with temperature, osmotic pressure, or ionic strength, independent of activation. By EM, the A-band and both Z-band lattice spacings varied with temperature and pressure, not ionic strength; however, the basketweave spacing was consistently 10% larger than small-square. We next sought evidence for the two Z-band structures in unfixed muscles using x-ray diffraction, which indicated two Z-reflections whose intensity ratios and spacings correspond closely to the EM measurements for small-square and basketweave if the EM spacings are adjusted for 20% shrinkage due to EM processing. We conclude that the two Z-reflections arise from the small-square and basketweave forms of the Z-band as seen by EM. Regarding the mechanism of transition during activation, the effects of Ca(2+) in the presence of force inhibitors suggested that the interconversion of Z-band forms was correlated with tropomyosin movement on actin.

X-ray diffraction evidence for myosin-troponin connections and tropomyosin movement during stretch activation of insect flight muscle.

Stretch activation is important in the mechanical properties of vertebrate cardiac muscle and essential to the flight muscles of most insects. Despite decades of investigation, the underlying molecular mechanism of stretch activation is unknown. We investigated the role of recently observed connections between myosin and troponin, called "troponin bridges," by analyzing real-time X-ray diffraction "movies" from sinusoidally stretch-activated Lethocerus muscles. Observed changes in X-ray reflections arising from myosin heads, actin filaments, troponin, and tropomyosin were consistent with the hypothesis that troponin bridges are the key agent of mechanical signal transduction. The time-resolved sequence of molecular changes suggests a mechanism for stretch activation, in which troponin bridges mechanically tug tropomyosin aside to relieve tropomyosin's steric blocking of myosin-actin binding. This enables subsequent force production, with cross-bridge targeting further enhanced by stretch-induced lattice compression and thick-filament twisting. Similar linkages may operate in other muscle systems, such as mammalian cardiac muscle, where stretch activation is thought to aid in cardiac ejection.