In: Biology
In which part of a relaxed muscle cellwould you find high Ca2+ concentration?Explain.
The part of a relaxed muscle cell that would have high ca2+ concentration is sarcoplasmic reticulum. This is membrane bound organelle just like endoplasmic reticulum which stores ca2+ ions. So, it acts as a reservior of ca2+ ions of muscle cells.
Muscle cells release ca2+ ions into the cytoplasm of muscle cell when cell get signal for contraction. So, during contraction, Ca2+ ions released by SC causes high concentration of these ions. These ions bind with troponin and tropomyosin and causes certain conformational changes that allow actin to interact with myosin.Hence muscle contraction takes place.
When the signal for muscle contraction stops,these ca 2+ ions are again taken into sarcoplasmic reticulum. Thus concentraction of ca2+ ions increases in sarcoplasmic reticulum but decreases into the cytoplasm. Thus causing relaxation of muscles beacause troponin and trypomyosin again regain their orignal position causing no interaction between actin and myosin. Thus causing relaxation.