Animation of a muscle contracting and relaxing. Muscles are made up of basic units called sarcomeres, which are composed of long, fibrous proteins that slide past each other as the muscles contract and relax. The two proteins are myosin (at bottom, straight) and actin (at bottom, coiled). The M-line (M, grey) is at the centre of the myosin and the Z-line (Z, green) forms the borders of each sarcomere. Other sections include the I-band (I, blue, for isotropic) where there is only actin filaments and the A-band (A, red, for Anisotropic) for the entire length of a myosin filament. The H-zone (H, white) is the section of myosin filaments not superimposed by actin filaments. Master same as original. |