Where the experiment took place
An international group of scientists has used a powerful new X-ray technique to observe for the first time at the molecular scale how muscle proteins change form and structure inside a contracting muscle cell. The study, led by scientists from King's College London, Universitą di Firenze (Italy), and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France), is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). A muscle cell contains two sets of filaments composed of the proteins actin and myosin, respectively. Muscles contract as a result of the relative sliding of these filaments. When the brain sends a nerve signal to activate a muscle, the electrical signal is transmitted to the muscle cell. This sets off a chain of events inside the muscle cell that eventually leads to changes in the structure of the myosin and actin filaments. But what exactly happens during this process at the molecular level? 'As we need muscles for locomotion, breathing and body posture, and for the contraction of the heart, understanding of these mechanisms has broad significance in biology and medicine', says Professor Malcolm Irving from the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King's.
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