Animal Movement

Most animal movement depends on a single

fundamental mechanism:
contractile proteins - can change their form to allow
relaxation and contraction
Contractile machinery is always composed of ultrafine
fibrils arranged to contract when powered by ATP.
By far the most important protein contractile system:
actomyosin system = composed of two proteins,
actin and myosin
3 kinds of animal movement:
ameboid
ciliary and flagellar
muscular
Ameboid movement
a form of movement especially characteristic of
amebas and other unicellular forms
move by extension and withdrawal of pseudopodia
(false feet)





the outer layer of nongranular, gel-like ectoplasm
surrounds a more fluid core of endoplasm
Ciliary and Flagellar movement
Cilia are minute, hair-like, motile processes that
extend from surfaces of cells of many animals.


Flagellum is a whiplike structure longer than a cilium
and usually present singly or in small numbers at one
end of a cell.

Ciliary Movement
Flagellar Movement
Muscular movement
Contractile tissue that is highly developed is called a
fiber
fibers are arranged in so many different configurations
and combinations that permits any movement
Types of Vertebrate Muscle
Classified according to the appearance of muscle cells
(fibers):

1. Skeletal striated, multinucleated
2. Cardiac striated, uninucleated
3. Smooth not stritated, uninucleated
Skeletal Muscle
typically organized into
sturdy, compact bundles or
bands

attached to skeletal elements
and is responsible for
movements of body parts
packed into bundles called fascicles which are
enclosed by tough connective tissue

fascicles are in turn grouped into a discrete muscle
surrounded by a thick connective tissue layer

Skeletal muscle is called voluntary muscle because it
is stimulated by motor neurons under conscious
control
Smooth Muscle
lacks the striations typical of
skeletal muscle
each cell contains a single,
central nucleus
has involuntary contractions


Cardiac Muscle
muscle of the vertebrate heart
combines certain characteristics
of both skeletal and smooth
muscle
an involuntary muscle
the heartbeat originates within
specialized cardiac muscle
has intercalated discs that
connect muscle fibers

Muscle structure
Each cell / fiber, contains numerous myofibrils,
packed together by a plasma membrane, the
sarcolemma.
The myofibril contains two types of filaments:
myosin, and actin.
These are the contractile proteins of the muscle. Actin
filaments are held together by a dense structure called
the Z line. The functional unit of the myofibril, the
sarcomere, extends between successive Z lines.

Myosin Filament
Each myosin filament is composed of many myosin
molecules packed in a bundle.
Each myosin molecule contains two polypeptide
chains, each having a club-shaped head.
They are lined up in two bundles to form a myosin
filament.
The myosin heads act as binding sites for high-energy
ATP and during muscle contraction they form
molecular cross bridges that interact with the actin
filaments.
Actin Filament
composed of a backbone of a double strand of the protein
actin, twisted into a double helix.
two actin-binding proteins, tropomyosin and troponin,
form part of the actin filament complex.
Two thin strands of tropomyosin lie near the grooves
between the actin strands. Troponin is located at intervals
along the actin filament.
Troponin acts as a calcium-dependent switch that controls
the contraction process.
The actin filament complexes extend outward from both
sides of the Z line and overlap with myosin bundles toward
the center of each sarcomere
Sliding Filament Hypothesis
the actin and myosin filaments become linked together by
molecular cross bridges, which act as levers to pull the
filaments past each other.

during contraction, the club-shaped heads on the myosin
filaments form cross bridges, alternately attaching to and
releasing from receptor sites on the actin filaments.

as contraction continues, the Z lines are pulled closer
together. Thus the sarcomere shortens. Because all
sarcomere units shorten together, the whole muscle
contracts.
Relaxation is a passive process.
When cross bridges between the actin and myosin
filaments release, the sarcomeres are free to lengthen.
This requires some force, which is supplied by recoil of
elastic fibers within the connective tissue layers of the
muscle.

Control of contraction
Muscle contracts in response to nerve stimulation.
Skeletal muscle fibers are innervated by motor
neurons whose cell bodies are located in the central
nervous system
If the nerve supply to a muscle is severed, the muscle
atrophies, or wastes away.
Amotor neuron and all muscle fibers it innervates is
called a motor unit.
The motor unit is the functional unit of skeletal muscle
control.
Neuromascular Junction
The place where a motor axon terminates on a muscle fiber is
called the neuromuscular ( or myoneural) junction.

AT THE JUNCTION YOU WILL FIND THE FF:
1. Synaptic cleft - thinly separates a nerve terminal and muscle
fiber
2. Synaptic vesicles stores acetylcholine, released into the
synaptic cleft when a nerve signal or action potential reaches a
synapse.
3. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that diffuses across the
synaptic cleft and acts on the sarcolemma, by binding to
receptor sites and generating an electrical depolarization
The vertebrate skeletal muscle conducts the
depolarization from the junction to the filaments
within the fiber through the T-Tubules.

T tubules are closely associated with the
sarcoplasmic reticulum, that runs parallel to the
actin and myosin filaments.
stores calcium and its release around the actin and myosin fi
laments enables the muscle fi ber to contract
Excitation-Contraction coupling
1. When muscle is stimulated and the action potential is
transmitted down the T-tubules, the electrical
depolarization stimulates the sarcoplasmic reticulum
surrounding the fbrils to release calcium ions.

2. The calcium binds to the actin-binding protein, troponin.

3. Troponin immediately undergoes changes in shape that
causes tropomyosin to move out of its blocking position,
exposing active sites on the actin filaments.
4. Myosin heads then bind to these sites, forming cross bridges
between adjacent myosin and actin filaments.

5. This sets in motion an attach-pull-release cycle, or cross-
bridge cycling, that occurs in a series of steps.

6. ATP hydrolysis activates the myosin head, which swings 45
degrees, at the same time releasing a molecule of ADP. This
is the power stroke that pulls the actin filament.

7. End when phosphate is released and another ATP molecule
binds to the myosin head, freeing it from the active site.
Energy for contraction
Muscle contraction requires large amounts of energy
and ATP is the immediate source of energy.
ATP can be obtained from 3 sources.
Glucose is transported to muscle in the blood where it
is catabolized during aerobic metabolism to produce
ATP.
Glycogen store within muscle can also supply glucose
molecules for ATP production.
Muscles have an energy reserve in the form of
creatine phosphate.
Glycogen
a polysaccharide chain of glucose molecules stored in
both liver and muscle. But muscles have more; three-
fourths of all glycogen in the body is stored in muscle.

3 advantages of glycogen:
it is relatively abundant
it can be mobilized quickly
it can provide energy under anoxic conditions

Enzymes convert glycogen to glucose-6-phosphate
molecules, the first stage of glycolysis

Creatine Phosphate
a high-energy phosphate compound that stores bond
energy during periods of rest
as ADP is produced from ATP during contraction,
creatine phosphate releases its stored bond energy to
convert ADP to ATP.
This reaction can be summarized as:

Creatine Phosphate + ADP ATP + Creatine
Oxygen debt
muscles rely heavily on glucose and oxygen supplies
transported to muscle via the circulatory system
if activity is not too vigorous glucose can be completely
oxidized to CO2 and H2O by aerobic metabolism.
during prolonged activities blood flow to the muscles,
cannot supply oxygen to the mitochondria rapidly enough
to complete oxidation of glucose.
muscles result eventually to obtaining energy from
anaerobic glycolysis which results to formation of lactic
acid
build up of lactic acid causes muscle fatigue and oxygen
debt