News tagged with muscle protein

Biophysics: Order in chaos

The process of skeletal muscle contraction is based around protein filaments sliding inside sarcomeres — the structural units of muscle fiber. Inside each sarcomere is a set of filament motors, which ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Unusual protein helps regulate key cell communication pathway

Charged atoms, or ions, move through tiny pores, or channels, embedded in cell membranes, generating the electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with one another. In new research, scientists have ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Let's stretch... Scientists study myomesin protein

The proteins actin, myosin and titin are big players in the business of muscle contraction. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now examined another muscle protein – ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Scientists show how cells accurately inherit information that is not contained in their genes

All 10 trillion cells in the adult human body are genetically identical, but develop into distinct cell types, such as muscle cells, skin cells or neurons, by activating some genes while inhibiting others. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Perfect micro rings woven from muscle fibers: A biological model system that dead-ends in 'absorbing state'

Supplied with sufficient energy, a freight train would ride the rails as far as they go. But nature also knows systems whose dynamics suddenly turn into a kind of endless loop. Like in a hamster wheel, a train ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Improving training efficiency in horses

It is well known that hard training can lead to degradation of muscle protein. A number of nutritional strategies have been developed to counter this but surprisingly there has to date been very little attention paid to the ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New insight into the regulation of stem cells and cancer cells

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gained new insight into the delicate relationship between two proteins that, when out of balance, can prevent the normal development of stem cells in the heart and may also be important ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 15, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Small change makes a big difference for ion channels

Using a high-resolution single-molecule study technique, University of Illinois researchers have seen the very subtle differences between two branches of an important family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New malaria protein structure upends theory of how cells grow and move

Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have overturned conventional wisdom on how cell movement across all species is controlled, solving the structure of a protein that cuts power to the cell ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Stem cell study could pave the way to treatment for age-related muscle wasting

A team led by developmental biologist Professor Christophe Marcelle has nailed the mechanism that causes stem cells in the embryo to differentiate into specialised cells that form the skeletal muscles of animals' bodies. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 17, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nano-motor with a light switch: Light-triggered myosin allows real-time study of cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Molecular "motors" are at the root of most biological movement. They propel cell components, whole cells, and even our muscles on command. Barbara Imperiali and a team from the Massachusetts ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study suggests that successful blueprints are recycled by evolution

During the development of an embryo, a large number of different, specialised cell-types arise from the fertilised egg. The genetic information is identical in all cells of an organism. Different properties ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Fruit flies on meth: Study explores whole-body effects of toxic drug

A new study in fruit flies offers a broad view of the potent and sometimes devastating molecular events that occur throughout the body as a result of methamphetamine exposure.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Apr 20, 2011 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Blood cells rejuvenated after a heart attack with new method

People who survive a heart attack live with a weakened heart muscle for the rest of their lives because the part of the heart affected by the heart attack dies and can no longer contribute to the heart's pump function. Injecting ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Feb 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Atomic model of tropomyosin bound to actin

New research sheds light on the interaction between the semi-flexible protein tropomyosin and actin thin filaments. The study, published by Cell Press on February 15th in the Biophysical Journal, provides the first detail ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 15, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Muscle

Muscle (from Latin musculus, diminutive of mus "mouse") is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to produce force and cause motion. Muscles can cause either locomotion of the organism itself or movement of internal organs. Cardiac and smooth muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival. Examples are the contraction of the heart and peristalsis which pushes food through the digestive system. Voluntary contraction of the skeletal muscles is used to move the body and can be finely controlled. Examples are movements of the eye, or gross movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.

For more information about Muscle, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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