if two skeletal muscles were the same overall length and had the same metabolic properties, but one had sarcomeres twice as long as the other which one would shorten faster under a very light load

Question

Biology

Nathanial Joseph

Today, 07:06

if two skeletal muscles were the same overall length and had the same metabolic properties, but one had sarcomeres twice as long as the other which one would shorten faster under a very light load

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Arely Watkins · Answer 1

The skeletal muscle with the shorter sarcomere length would shorten faster under a very light load.

Explanation:

A sarcomere is the unit of contraction in a striated muscle. Types of striated muscles include cardiac muscles and skeletal muscles.

All striated muscles are connected to the skeleton and the characteristic sarcomeres are functional in creating force and contractility.

The length of muscle sarcomeres affects how much and how fast the muscle contracts. A muscle with a longer sarcomere length, though having greater force, has a shorter range of contraction when compared to a muscle fiber with shorter sarcomere length.

Sarcomeres, are associated with protein fibres; myosin and actin. Myosin binds to actin after a calcium influx. The calcium influx serves to expose the binding sites of actin, enabling both proteins to bind in a cross binding pattern.