Collective Force Generator Model of Muscle Contraction: Theoretical and Experimental Support for Factors Beyond Detachment Kinetics that Influence Unloaded Shortening Velocities of Muscle

This dissertation covers three related approaches to developing a more complete understanding of how single molecule properties of muscle myosin collectively generate unloaded shortening velocities, V. Theory, experimentation, and simulation results all contributed to answering fundamental muscle research questions. These questions focused on addressing how single myosin molecule properties scale in an ensemble to collectively perform work that results in V and how attachment kinetics affect V. Our work has resulted in the development of a model, based on quantifiable kinetic and physical parameters of myosin and actin, which provides a set of mechanisms to describe experimental data that the predominate models of muscle contraction are unable to.