The use of synchrotron radiation in time-resolved X-ray diffraction studies of myosin layer-line reflections during muscle contraction

Abstract

Experiments on striated muscle [frog sartorius muscle] were carried out using the electron-positron storage ring DORIS as a high-intensity X-ray source. The low-angle reflections from the myosin cross-bridges could be recorded more than 1000 times more rapidly than with the best conventional X-ray sources, and could be followed during contraction with a time resolution of 10 ms.