Practice question · True or false
During muscle contraction the actin and myosin filaments themselves become shorter.
Hints
- What does the name "sliding filament mechanism" describe?
- The filaments keep their length and slide past one another.
Show the answer
False
Why
False, the filaments keep their length throughout. The sarcomere shortens because actin and myosin slide past each other, increasing their overlap. The name of the mechanism states the correction directly.
Practise Muscle and Nervous Tissue
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