contracted and relaxed sarcomere

Diagram showing the muscle fibers in relaxed (above) and contracted (below)



Organization of the Sarcomere



Diagram showing the muscle fibers in relaxed (above) and contracted (below)



banding patterns of sarcomeres in relaxed and contracted states



Figure 1: Schematic Illustration of a Sarcomere



Superstructure of the Sarcomere (see



of relaxed and contracted muscle: These show that each sarcomere gets



Interestingly, ATP is also necessary for a contracted muscle cell to “relax”



delimits a sarcomere. The Z disk contains aactinin, which anchors thin



a sarcomere in the direction perpendicular to the sarcomere extension.



This is an image of a relaxed sarcomere, before the abovementioned calcium



Comparison of a relaxed and contracted sarcomere



The position of the filaments in the sarcomere explains the banding pattern



During muscle contraction, each sarcomere shortens as the thin filaments



There is a theory about how muscles contract called “The Sliding Filament



Both muscle types contain a single sarcomere with myofilaments oriented



diagrams of muscle fibres relaxed and maximally contracted



Thus, the fibers are straight and show the relaxed pattern cross banding,



Muscle fibers in relaxed (above) and contracted (below) positions



Contracted state of sarcomere. All of these actions happen at an amazing