Research groups at the University of Helsinki uncovered how motor protein myosin, which is responsible for contraction of skeletal muscles, functions also in non-muscle cells to build contractile ...

Coordinated 'crawling' of myosin motor proteins along actin filaments is the principal mechanism that generates the force for muscle contraction. However, such myosin-based force-production is not ...

The actin and myosin complex (actomyosin) generates contraction force of a muscle utilizing the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis reaction. Many attempts have thus been made to explain the ...

To maintain efficient force generation, myosins must couple the ATPase cycle with actin binding and lever movement, but the mechanism for this coupling and actin activation of myosin has remained ...

Muscles generate force and shortening in a cyclical interaction between the myosin head domains projecting from the myosin filaments and the adjacent actin filaments. Although many features of the ...

Researchers at Yale shed new light on the mechanism of nerve cell growth by identifying novel functions for a molecular "motor" protein, myosin-II, according to an article in the March issue of ...

This achievement could aid in the hunt for new ways to treat diseases associated with myosin malfunction. ... Single-molecule imaging reveals how myosin moves to bring about muscle contraction.

A group of researchers unraveled the three-dimensional structure of actomyosin rigor complex (complex of actin and myosin filaments), clarifying how skeletal muscles contract at high speed and high ...

Elongation and contraction of the cell boundary is essential for directing changes in cell shape, which is required for the correct development of tissues and organs. The study was published in ...

During embryonic development, thousands of cells divide and move collectively, sculpting the main body axes from an initially ...

The role of myosin and actin proteins The most abundant components of our muscles are myosin motor proteins, and bar-like filaments assembled from protein actin. Coordinated ‘crawling’ of myosin motor ...