Chemomechanical regulation of myosin Ic cross-bridges: Deducing the elastic properties of an ensemble from single-molecule mechanisms
Fig 7
Number of engaged myosin heads.
(a) The fraction 〈n〉/N of bound myosin heads depends on the total number N of myosin molecules. A larger fraction of the heads is bound at low forces for a small ensemble than for a large ensemble. (b) In an ensemble of N = 30 myosin heads, the average number 〈n〉 of bound myosin molecules increases with an increasing actin concentration. In both figures, the analytic results (solid lines) are compared to Monte Carlo simulations (broken lines) with an elastic coupling stiffness of κ = 500 μN/m.