Design and control of the head retractor muscle in a turtle, Pseudemys (Trachemys) scripta: I. Architecture and histochemistry of single muscle fibers.

Abstract

We are using the head retractor muscle (RCCQ) of a turtle, Pseudemys scripta, to analyze the neuromuscular mechanisms by which organisms vary the force and timing of muscle contraction. Previously we demonstrated that RCCQ comprises three histochemically defined fiber types: fast glycolytic (Fg), fast oxidative glycolytic (FOG), and slow oxidative (SO). In the present paper we report the 1) architectural features of single muscle fibers in RCCQ, including their lengths, diameters, and taper characteristics, 2) histochemical profiles of single muscle fibers, and 3) quantitative relations between our architectural and histochemical variables. Single fibers in RCCQ exhibit an order of magnitude variation in length (4-60 mm). Approximately 40% span the full muscle. The remaining fibers generally attach to bone or tendon at one end, and the other end tapers intramuscularly; rarely a fiber may taper at both ends. The maximum (untapering) diameters of single fibers are bimodally distributed, forming two diameter classes. Fibers also vary in the percentage of their total length that tapers and in the shape of the tapering region. Large diameter muscle fibers generally are longer and have shorter, more blunted tapers than small diameter fibers. The large diameter fibers are almost all Fg types; these fibers have a median diameter of 59.3 microns, and they account for approximately 60% of total fibers in RCCQ. FOG and SO fibers generally have small diameters (median: 32.5 microns and 35.8 microns), and they typically account for 30% and 10% of total fibers. We use these relations to draw inferences about the attachments and architecture of glycolytic (Fg) and oxidative (FOG, SO) fiber types. Taken together, our data suggest that single muscle fibers in RCCQ may be architecturally as well as histochemically specialized to perform different roles in head retraction. In the accompanying paper we report the efferent innervation of these fibers and consider some of the neural control problems posed by these diverse fiber types.