The Fantastic, Elastic Muscle Protein

The movie shows a stretching force being applied to six domains (at top, colored separately) of the muscle protein titin, which provides muscle with its elasticity. Like six knots tied on the same string, the titin domains rupture one-by-one with the application of force, rather than simultaneously. The chart shows the force being applied in piconewtons and the extension of the domains in Angstroms. The results speak to fundamental processes of muscle, and may inform how muscle protein mutations are related