Intensity increases of actin layer-lines on activation of the Limulus muscle

Small angle x-ray diffraction patterns were recorded from isometrically contracting Limulus (horseshoe crab) telson levator muscle using a multiwire proportional-area detector on the storage ring DORIS. In the pattern a substantial increase in intensity is observed on the thin-filament-associated layer-line at 1/38 nm-1 (the first actin layer-line) with a maximum increase at a radial spacing of R = 0.07 nm-1 but there is a much smaller change in the intensity of the 5.9-nm layer-line, which also arises from the thin filament structure. The results suggest that during contraction the myosin heads, presumably being attached to the thin filaments, are arranged along the long-stranded helical tracks of the thin filaments but that the spatial relationship between the heads and the actin monomers varies. Intensity increases have also been observed (Maéda et al., manuscript in preparation) in the part of the patterns from frog muscle and barnacle muscle, which are attributable to the first actin layer-line. It is thus likely that the intensity increase of the first actin layer-line on the Limulus pattern is associated not with structural features which are special to Limulus muscle, but with the tension generating processes that are shared by muscles in general.