Structure of the actin-myosin complex and its implications for muscle contraction.

Rayment I, Holden HM, Whittaker M, Yohn CB, Lorenz M, Holmes KC, Milligan RA

Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53705.

Muscle contraction consists of a cyclical interaction between myosin and actin driven by the concomitant hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). A model for the rigor complex of F actin and the myosin head was obtained by combining the molecular structures of the individual proteins with the low-resolution electron density maps of the complex derived by cryo-electron microscopy and image analysis. The spatial relation between the ATP binding pocket on myosin and the major contact area on actin suggests a working hypothesis for the crossbridge cycle that is consistent with previous independent structural and biochemical studies.

Comments:

• Comment in: Science 1993 Jul 2;261(5117):35-6

PMID: 8316858, UI: 93303625

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