BIOL273 : Unit 3 Muscle.docx

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL273
• Professor: Catherine Studholme

Document Summary

What is a muscle: tissue specialized to convert biochemical reactions into mechanical work. Muscle function: uses contraction to generate motion and generate force: can only contract, cannot expand except when physically pulled by antagonistic muscle groups, also generate heat & contribute to body temperature homeostasis. Muscle types: figure 12-1: skeletal attached to bones of the skeleton to generate force for body movement. Contract in response to signal from somatic motor neuron (cannot initiate contraction on its own or influenced by hormones in the somatic nervous system) No cell-cell binding, long cells run the length of a muscle. Striations: smooth primary muscle of internal organs & tubes (e. g. stomach blood vessels, urinary bladder) Small and do not attach to each other. Influences movement of materials through the body (autonomic nervous system) No striations: cardiac found only in the heart and creates a pump to move blood around the body (autonomic nervous system) Branched and joined by intercalated disk junctions: skeletal muscle.