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Muscles
Muscle tissue is made up of cells that can
contract, generating a pulling force.

Muscle tissue makes up about 40% of

the body’s mass.

There are three different types of

muscle tissue:

 cardiac muscle
 smooth muscle
 skeletal muscle.

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Skeletal muscle
Skeletal muscle is essential for voluntary movement, but is
also constantly used for maintaining posture. It covers the
skeleton and allows bones to be moved relative to one
another.

Muscles are usually attached tendon attaches

the muscle to
to bones by a form of inelastic
the bone
tissue called a tendon.

The voluntary nervous

system controls skeletal
muscle by sending messages
from the central nervous
system to the muscle tissue.

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Cardiac muscle
Cardiac muscle is only found
in the ventricle and atrium walls
in the heart.

Cardiac muscle contracts

rhythmically throughout its
lifespan and does not become
fatigued.

Cardiac muscle is myogenic.

The impulses that cause the
muscle fibres to contract are
initiated within the heart itself.

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Smooth muscle
The lining of some internal organs contains smooth muscle.

Smooth muscle is particularly important

in the digestive system. Its rhythmic
contractions help to move food along
the digestive tract.

Smooth muscle is slow to fatigue and is

controlled by the autonomic nervous
system.

Smooth muscle is often called involuntary muscle because

it is not controlled consciously. However, with training,
humans can learn to control some smooth muscles.

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Muscle cells

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The role of ATP in muscle contraction
The hydrolysis of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) provides the
energy required for muscle contraction.

33 kJmol-1
 + inorganic + energy
ATP ADP phosphate

Most muscle fibres store phosphocreatine, a chemical that

phosphorylates ADP to ATP. This reaction maintains the
muscle’s supply of ATP during vigorous exercise.

+  +
ADP phosphocreatine ATP creatine

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Fast twitch fibres
Skeletal muscle contains two different types of muscle fibre:
slow twitch and fast twitch.

Fast twitch fibres are used

for short bursts of activity
because their contractions
are powerful and quick.

Fast twitch fibres respire anaerobically and store a large

amount of phosphocreatine in their cytoplasm. This
provides a quick source of ATP during sudden exercise.

The lactate produced as a by-product of anaerobic

respiration cause fast twitch fibres to become fatigued quickly.

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Slow twitch fibres
Slow twitch muscle fibres are used during endurance
activities because they contract slowly and can work for long
periods of time.

These fibres have:

 a large number of mitochondria

 a high concentration of myoglobin

 an excellent blood supply.

These adaptations help to maintain aerobic respiration in the

tissue, making slow twitch fibres very slow to fatigue.
However, their ATP generation is slower than in fast twitch
fibres, making the contractions of slow twitch fibres weaker.

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Fast twitch or slow twitch?

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Producing movement
Muscle tissue is only able to generate a force while it is
contracting, meaning that muscles are unable to push.
Skeletal movements can only be produced by muscles
pulling bones.
This muscle
Therefore movement about straightens
the joints in the body requires the leg.
a minimum of two muscles;
one to generate a force in
each plane of movement. This muscle
bends the leg.
Most joints use pairs of muscles
acting in opposite directions to generate movement.
Such muscles are known as antagonistic pairs.

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How do muscles move the skeleton?

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Antagonistic pairs

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Nervous control
Skeletal muscle is under the control of the voluntary nervous
system. Each muscle is controlled by a motor neurone.
motor neurone

Motor neurones interact

with muscles at a
neuromuscular
junction, sometimes
called a motor endplate.

This is a specialized form

of synapse that forms
between a neurone and
muscle fibre. muscle fibre
neuromuscluar
junction
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The neuromuscular junction

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Summary – controlling movement

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The structure of skeletal muscle

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Observing myofibrils
In the 1950s, two independent research groups were studying
muscle function. Z-line Z-line

The first, led by Professor

Jean Hanson, studied
myofibrils. She observed
that some of the myofibril
bands change length as the
muscle contracts.
sarcomere
Contraction of the sarcomere, a region of myofibril that
lies between two Z-lines, causes muscle contraction.
The sarcomeres contract by reducing the size of the
lighter bands found at either end of the sarcomere.

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The sarcomere
The second group, led by Professor Hugh Huxley, used
X-rays to investigate the structure of myofibrils.

Huxley found that myofibrils contained two different types of

filaments: thin filaments made predominantly of actin, and
thick filaments made of myosin.

These filaments are

arranged in an
interlocking pattern within
the sarcomere, producing
the characteristic banding
pattern of the myofibrils.
thin filament thick filament Z-line
(actin) (myosin)

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The structure of the sarcomere

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Understanding the sarcomere’s bands

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The sarcomere – structure to function
Hansen and Huxley realized that the interlocking structure of
the thick and thin filaments allows them to slide past one
another. This reduces the length of the sarcomere.

contraction

At the same time the banding pattern of the sarcomere

changes; light bands, formed by actin, shrink as the filaments
become more interlocked.

In 1954 Hansen and Huxley published their work explaining

muscle contraction using their sliding filament theory.

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The sliding filament theory

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How does the sarcomere change?

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The structure of myosin
The myosin filament is formed from a
number of myosin proteins wound
together. Each ends in a myosin
myosin myosin
head, which contains an ATPase. filament head

actin
ATP
binding
binding
site
site

ATPase head myosin neck

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The structure of actin
The actin filament is formed from a helix of actin sub-units.
Each contains a binding site for the myosin heads.
troponin

myosin head
tropomyosin actin sub-unit
binding site

Two other proteins are attached to the actin fibre:

 tropomyosin is wound around the actin
 troponin molecules are bound to tropomyosin
and contain calcium ion binding sites.
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What controls the sliding filaments?

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Summary – muscle contraction

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Glossary

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Sarcomere structure

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What’s the keyword?

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Multiple-choice quiz

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