CAMPBELL BIOLOGY:CONCEPTS... >CUSTOM<
CAMPBELL BIOLOGY:CONCEPTS... >CUSTOM<
18th Edition
ISBN: 9781323753149
Author: SIMON
Publisher: PEARSON C
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Chapter 30, Problem 18TYK

When a person dies, muscles become rigid and fixed in position—a condition known as rigor. Rigor mortis occurs because muscle cells are no longer supplied with ATP (when breathing stops, ATP synthesis ceases). Calcium also flows freely into dying cells. The rigor eventually disappears because the biological molecules break down. Explain, in terms of the mechanism of contraction described in Modules 30.9 and 30.10, why the presence of calcium and the lack of ATP would cause muscles to become rigid, rather than limp, soon after death.

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The filaments of skeletal muscle are moved by free energy derived from the hydrolysis of ATP. During sustained muscle contraction ATP levels remain fairly constant, while levels of creatine phosphate fall. Explain why this is so. Under what circumstances is an oxygen debt incurred during muscle contraction?
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