SUMMARY1. The sulphydryl groups of skinned skeletal muscle fibres have been reacted with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) in order to determine whether the effects of modifications to the contractile proteins are reflected in changes in the physiological properties of the contractile apparatus and Ca2+-regulatory system. 2. Results obtained from fast-twitch and slow-twitch rat fibres which were treated with DTNB (10 mm, pH 8-6, 5 C) for various periods of time under relaxing conditions showed that a major effect of the modification was to reduce the level of maximally Ca2+-activated force and fibre stiffness. Force and fibre stiffness were found to decline in proportion. Treatment with DTNB under these conditions did not cause a rise in force or fibre stiffness in relaxed fibres of either type.3. The effects induced by DTNB under relaxing conditions were substantially reversed by exposure to the reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT) (10 mM, pH 741, 23°C). Force abolished by 30-35 s treatment with DTNB recovered after subsequent DTT treatment to 67+3 % (mean + S.E.M., n = 4) in fast-twitch fibres and to 91 + 2 % (n = 7) in slow-twitch fibres. These results were significantly different (t test, P < 0f001) indicating that the level of force recovery depended upon the fibre type.4. DTNB was found to affect not only the maximal Ca2+-activated force, but also the force-pCa (pCa = -logl0[Ca2+]) relationships of the fibres in a complex, fibretype specific way. DTT treatment partially reversed these DTNB effects. 5. The skinned fibre preparations reacted differently with DTNB under rigor conditions than under relaxing conditions, indicating that rigor modifies the reactivity of the functional sulphydryl groups to the thiol-targeted agents.6. When superprecipitation assays (an in vitro analogue of fibre contraction) were