Abstract
While it is now well known that a rise in the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration precedes muscle contraction, it is still puzzhng how exactly the contractile machinery is switched on by calcium. Much progress was achieved, however, by studying the calcium-binding protein troponin, which proved to be the intracellular calcium switch regulating the activity of the contractile machinery in vertebrate striated muscle and many types of invertebrate muscle. Thus, troponin senses the free Ca2+ concentration in the myoplasm and transmits the calcium signal to the actin filaments (Sect. 4.1). By influencing the filament structure troponin regulates the availabihty of potential crossbridge-binding sites on a segment of actin monomers and, hence, the activity of the contractile ATPase (Sect. 4.2). This calcium activation may be modulated indirectly by ancillary calcium-binding proteins, such as calmodulin and parvalbumin (Sect. 4.3).
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rüegg, J.C. (1986). Troponin, the On-Off Switch of Muscle Contraction in Striated Muscle. In: Calcium in Muscle Activation. Zoophysiology, vol 19. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96981-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96981-2_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-18278-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-96981-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive