John Squire and the myosin thick filament structure in muscle

Abstract

The structure of the thin, actin-containing filament of muscle is both highly conserved across a broad range of muscle types and is now well understood. The structure of the thick, myosin-containing filaments of striated muscle are quite variable and remained comparatively unknown until recently, particularly in the arrangement of the myosin tails. John Squire played a major role not only in our understanding of thin filament structure and function but also in the structure of the thick filaments. Long before much was known about the structure and composition of muscle thick filaments, he proposed a general model for how myosin filaments were constructed. His role in our current understanding the structure of striated muscle thick filaments and the extent through which his predictions have held true is the topic of this review.

Keywords: Electron microscopy; Modeling; Striated muscle; X-ray fiber diffraction.