Myosin II is the motor protein that produces force and shortening in muscle by ATP‐driven cyclic interactions of its globular portion, the head, with the actin filament. During each interaction the myosin head undergoes a conformational change, the working stroke, which, depending on the mechanical conditions, can generate a force of several piconewtons or an axial displacement of the actin filament toward the centre of the sarcomere of several nanometres. However, the sizes of the elementary force and length steps and their dependence on the mechanical conditions are still under question. Due to the small fraction of the ATPase cycle time myosin II spends attached to actin, single molecule mechanics failed to produce definitive measurements of the individual events. In intact frog muscle fibres, however, myosin II's working stroke can be synchronised in the few milliseconds following a step reduction in either force or length superimposed on the isometric contraction. Here we show that with 150 μs force steps it is possible to separate the elastic response from the subsequent early rapid component of filament sliding due to the working stroke in the attached myosin heads. In this way we determine how the size and the speed of the working stroke depend on the clamped force. The relation between mechanical energy and force provides a molecular basis for muscle efficiency and an estimate of the isometric force exerted by a myosin head.

A shortening muscle is a machine that converts metabolic energy into mechanical work, but, when a muscle is stretched, it acts as a brake, generating a high resistive force at low metabolic cost. The braking action of muscle can be activated with remarkable speed, as when the leg extensor muscles rapidly decelerate the body at the end of a jump. Here we used time-resolved x-ray and mechanical measurements on isolated muscle cells to elucidate the molecular basis of muscle braking and its rapid control. We show that a stretch of only 5 nm between each overlapping set of myosin and actin filaments in a muscle sarcomere is sufficient to double the number of myosin motors attached to actin within a few milliseconds. Each myosin molecule has two motor domains, only one of which is attached to actin during shortening or activation at constant length. A stretch strains the attached motor domain, and we propose that combined steric and mechanical coupling between the two domains promotes attachment of the second motor domain. This mechanism allows skeletal muscle to resist external stretch without increasing the force per motor and provides an answer to the longstanding question of the functional role of the dimeric structure of muscle myosin.

Axial x-ray diffraction patterns from single intact fibers of frog skeletal muscle were recorded by using a highly collimated x-ray beam at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. During isometric contraction at sarcomere lengths 2.2–3.2 μm, the M3 x-ray reflection, associated with the repeat of myosin heads along the filaments, was resolved into two peaks. The total M3 intensity decreased linearly with increasing sarcomere length and was directly proportional to the degree of overlap between myosin and actin filaments, showing that it comes from myosin heads in the overlap region. The separation between the M3 peaks was smaller at longer sarcomere length and was quantitatively explained by x-ray interference between myosin heads in the two overlap regions of each sarcomere. The relative intensity of the M3 peaks was independent of sarcomere length, showing that the axial periodicities of the nonoverlap and overlap regions of the myosin filament have the same value, 14.57 nm, during active contraction. In resting fibers the periodicity is 14.34 nm, so muscle activation produces a change in myosin filament structure in the nonoverlap as well as the overlap part of the filament. The results establish x-ray interferometry as a new tool for studying the motions of myosin heads during muscle contraction with unprecedented spatial resolution.

Force enhancement during lengthening of an active muscle, a condition that normally occurs during locomotion in vivo, is attributed to recruitment of myosin heads that exhibit fast attachment to and detachment from actin in a cycle that does not imply ATP splitting. We investigated the kinetic and mechanical features of this cycle in Ca²⁺ activated single skinned fibres from human skeletal muscles containing different myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms, identified with single‐fibre gel electrophoresis. Fibres were activated by using a new set‐up that allows development of most of the tension following a temperature jump from 0–1°C to the test temperature (∼12°C). In this way we could prevent the development of sarcomere non‐uniformity and record sarcomere length changes with a striation follower in any phase of the mechanical protocol. We found that: (i) fibres with fast MHC isoforms develop 40–70% larger isometric forces than those with slow isoforms, as a result of both a larger fraction of force‐generating myosin heads and a higher force per head; (ii) in both slow and fast fibres, force enhancement by stretch is due to recruitment of myosin head attachments, without increase in strain per head above the value generated by the isometric heads; and (iii) the extent of recruitment is larger in slow fibres than in fast fibres, so that the steady force and power output elicited by lengthening become similar, indicating that mechanical and kinetic properties of the actin–myosin interactions under stretch become independent of the MHC isoform.

Key points: Force and shortening in muscle are caused by ATP‐driven working strokes of myosin II motors, during their cyclic interactions with the actin filament in each half‐sarcomere. Crystallographic studies indicate that the working stroke consists in an interdomain movement of the myosin motor associated with the release of inorganic phosphate (P_i). Here the coupling of the working stroke with the release of P_i is studied in situ using fast half‐sarcomere mechanics on skinned fibres from rabbit psoas. The isotonic velocity transient following stepwise force reductions superimposed on isometric contraction measures the mechanical manifestation of the working stroke and its rate of regeneration. The results indicate that the release of P_i from the catalytic site of an actin‐attached myosin motor can occur at any stage of the working stroke, and a myosin motor uses two consecutive actin monomers to maximize the power during shortening. Abstract  Skeletal muscle shortens faster against a lower load. This force–velocity relationship is the fundamental determinant of muscle performance in vivo and is due to ATP‐driven working strokes of myosin II motors, during their cyclic interactions with the actin filament in each half‐sarcomere. Crystallographic studies suggest that the working stroke is associated with the release of phosphate (P_i) and consists of 70 deg tilting of a light‐chain domain that connects the catalytic domain of the myosin motor to the myosin tail and filament. However, the coupling of the working stroke with P_i release is still an unsolved question. Using nanometre–microsecond mechanics on skinned muscle fibres, we impose stepwise drops in force on an otherwise isometric contraction and record the isotonic velocity transient, to measure the mechanical manifestation of the working stroke of myosin motors and the rate of its regeneration in relation to the half‐sarcomere load and [P_i]. We show that the rate constant of the working stroke is unaffected by [P_i], while the subsequent transition to steady velocity shortening is accelerated. We propose a new chemo‐mechanical model that reproduces the transient and steady state responses by assuming that: (i) the release of P_i from the catalytic site of a myosin motor can occur at any stage of the working stroke, and (ii) a myosin motor, in an intermediate state of the working stroke, can slip to the next actin monomer during filament sliding. This model explains the efficient action of muscle molecular motors working as an ensemble in the half‐sarcomere.