 Only 1 A band.

 In order to keep thick filaments stationary in the center of sarcomere, the boundary is the
outside of the myofibril. 
o Have the M line which keep the thick filaments stationary. 
o What’s keeping the Thin filaments stationary is the z line. 

Lastly, within area of A band. The region where you don’t have any thin filaments is called the H
zone.

What is going to happen during contraction?

 When the thick filament myosin heads attach to thin filaments and pull them into the
center of the sarcomere.  the A band will NOT change in size. B/c A band is defined
as the length of THICC filament.   
o It remains stationary and pulls the THIN filaments in. 
 Thin filament NEVER changes length. 

How do we shorten sarcomere?

 Things slide over each other and that’s why contraction is called the sliding filament
mechanism of contraction.
o Ex. fingers when bringing hands together, fingers aren’t getting any shorter.
Similarly with thick + thin. They are sliding across each other to make hands
closer together. 

A band never changes size during contraction.

 What happens if we bring Z lines closer to A band? How is I band going to change?
o During contraction, thin filaments never change length but I band gets smaller. 
o Does H zone get smaller? Yes. 

A band will not get shorter. The I band WILL get shorter. b/c as it contracts, all of it contract and
myofibril contract and all of them contract simultaneously therefore muscle fiber contracts.
 One of the reasons why you can have regulated change in strength in muscle. If just
picking up eraser during curls
o Not doing much b/c using very little muscle fibers.
o If picking up chair, that would take a lot of muscle fibers simultaneously
contracting.
 o Can regulate strength voluntary of skeletal muscles. As you grow from baby to
child to adult, you learn to look at something and know the kind of weight and can
foresee how many motor units or muscle fibers im going to need to lift the chair. 

 Each myosin molecule

o Has tail that makes up thick filament
o Head region that binds to thin filament. 
o Have a hinge region so when head binds to thin filament it can pull that thin
filament into the H zone of the A band. 

On thin filament we see

o Some regulatory proteins surrounding thin filaments. Tropomyosin (green
ropelike structure) and Troponin (brown structure)
 Regulatory protein - they regulate the interaction or control interaction b/w
thick and thin filaments 
 Tropomyosin is physically blocking the myosin heads of the thick
filament from binding to the thin filament. 
o We are looking at for makeup of actual thin filament is Nebulin rod (long
filamentous protein. Purple rod)
 Nebulin - structure upon which actin molecules.
o So you have filamentous protein and globular protein represented by actin. Looks
like a double helix wrapped around nebulin rod in the sarcomere.
Largest protein that body produces is Titin. 
 Long and filamentous but very elastic. Looks squiggly and running through thick filament
and tying thick filament to each end of sarcomere. Titin is a structural protein for the
thick filament as is the M line. 
 Nebulin is the structural protein for the thin filament. 

When talking about contractile cycle, it’s the myosin heads that bind to the actin of the thin
filament.
 So myosin heads of the thick filament binds to the actin molecules of the thin filament
and draw the thin filament towards the center of the sarcomere. 

What are regulatory proteins associated with the thin filament?

 Troponin and tropomyosin.

When sarcomere contracts which regions of the sarcomere actually get smaller?
 I band

Which additional areas of structures get smaller?

 H zone

*Remember that when thin + thick filaments DON’T GET SHORTER. Only areas of sarcomere
gets shorter. Thin + thick slide across each other but don’t change length. 

Overview of muscle cell contraction 

Excitation-contraction coupling
 We have somatic motor neuron. Has to secrete a NT
o First NT to know = Acetylcholine (ACh)
 Acetyl = 2 carbon molecule. ACh is a tiny NT. Synthesized in axon
terminal.
 One of reasons why we need mitochondria in axon terminal of the
neuron.