REACTION MECHANISM OF THE ACTOMYOSINADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE SYSTEM

　Introduction

　As is well known, a new epoch inmuscle biochemistry was marked by thebrilliant discovery of Engelhardt andLjubimova（1939, 1946）that actomyosin, the main component of muscle structureproteins, hydrolyzes catalytically adenosine triphosphate（ATP）into adenosinediphosphate（ADP）and inorganic orthophosphate（P）. Subsequently, Engelhardt（1941, 1942）, Needham（1944）and Szent-Györgyi（1947）and their coworkersshowed that physicochemical propertiesof actomyosin, in turn, are changedremarkably by the addition of ATP.