Myofibrils are long, cylindrical rod-like organelles found in muscle fibres. They are made of proteins actin and myosin and are the contractile elements of the muscle fibre. They are lined up so that when they all contract together they provide the maximum force possible.The striped appearance is due to alternating light and dark bands. These are the result of the juxtaposition of adjacent functional units called sarcomeres.
Myofibrils
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Specification: AQA Biology (7402), A-level, 3.6.3 Skeletal muscles are stimulated to contract by nerves and act as. Topic: Muscles.
Key terms in this lesson
- pyruvate
- The three-carbon end product of glycolysis, which enters the mitochondrion for the link reaction in the presence of oxygen or is reduced to lactate or ethanol in its absence.