ANATOMY

Detailed explanation-1: -A sarcomere is the functional unit (contractile unit) of a muscle fiber. As illustrated in Figure 2-5, each sarcomere contains two types of myofilaments: thick filaments, composed primarily of the contractile protein myosin, and thin filaments, composed primarily of the contractile protein actin.

Detailed explanation-2: -The sarcomere is the smallest functional unit of a skeletal muscle fiber and is a highly organized arrangement of contractile, regulatory, and structural proteins. It is the shortening of these individual sarcomeres that lead to the contraction of individual skeletal muscle fibers (and ultimately the whole muscle).

Detailed explanation-3: -What Is a Sarcomere? When muscle cells are viewed under the microscope, one can see that they contain a striped pattern (striations). This pattern is formed by a series of basic units called sarcomeres that are arranged in a stacked pattern throughout muscle tissue (Figure 1).

Detailed explanation-4: -The fundamental repeat unit within muscle that is responsible for contraction is the sarcomere. The sarcomere consists of a bundle of myosin-containing thick filaments flanked and interdigitated with bundles of actin-containing thin filaments (Fig. 1).