MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -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-2: -A sarcomere is the basic contractile unit of a myocyte (muscle fibre). A sarcomere is composed of two main protein filaments (thin actin and thick myosin filaments) which are the active structures responsible for muscular contraction.

Detailed explanation-3: -The arrangement of actin and myosin gives skeletal muscle its microscopic striated appearance and creates functional units called sarcomeres.

Detailed explanation-4: -By studying sarcomeres, the basic unit controlling changes in muscle length, scientists proposed the sliding filament theory to explain the molecular mechanisms behind muscle contraction. Within the sarcomere, myosin slides along actin to contract the muscle fiber in a process that requires ATP.