Titin-dependent biomechanical feedback tailors sarcomeres to specialised muscle functions in insects

Abstract

Sarcomeres are the contractile units of muscles that enable animals to move. Insect muscles are remarkable examples because they use extremely different contraction frequencies (ranging from ~1 to 1000 Hz) and amplitudes for flying, walking and crawling. This is puzzling because sarcomeres are built from essentially the same actin-myosin components. We show here that the giant protein titin is the key to this functional specialisation. I-band titin spans and determines the length of the sarcomeric I-band, and occurs in muscle-type-specific isoforms. Surprisingly, it also rules the length of the force-generating myosin filament in a force feedback mechanism, even though it is not present there. We provide evidence for this model and its validity beyond insects.