The size and the speed of the working stroke of muscle myosin and its dependence on the force

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 mus 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.