Contraction of glycerinated muscle fibers as a function of the ATP concentration.

We have measured the force-velocity curves of glycerinated rabbit psoas fibers over a range of ATP concentration from 2.5 microM to 5 mM. As the ATP concentration is increased, the isometric tension increases to a maximum around 50 microM, then decreases to a plateau at 70% of the maximum by 1 mM ATP. At low ATP concentrations the maximum velocity of contraction is low and increases with increasing ATP, reaching a plateau at approximately 2 lengths per second by 1 mM ATP. Our studies suggest that the binding of ATP dissociates the myosin head from actin in the contracting muscle, a reaction similar to that seen in solution. We have constructed models of the actin-myosin-nucleotide interactions based on a kinetic scheme derived from solution studies. The fit of these models to the data shows that the rates of some reactions in the fiber must be considerably different from the rates of the analogous reactions in solution. The data is best fit by models in which head attachment occurs rapidly at the beginning of a power stroke, head detachment occurs rapidly at the end of the power stroke, and the force produced by a myosin head in a power stroke is independent of velocity.