MUSCLE ULTRASTRUCTURE IN THE TELEOST FISH

The muscles of teleost fish are different in ultrastructure from those of most other kinds of vertebrate. A distinct difference is that they are much more highly ordered than the frog, rabbit or human muscles c onventionally used as vertebrate muscle stereotypes. The improved orde r permits the full application of powerful techniques such as electron microscopy and image processing, and X-ray diffraction and model buil ding. Here ultrastructural aspects of the red and white fibres in typi cal teleosts are compared through paired sets of electron micrographs, and ultrastructural details of teleost M-bands and Z-bands obtained f rom the application of three-dimensional reconstruction methods are de scribed. The potential application of teleost muscle in production of ''Muscle-The Movie'', which it is hoped will help to define the mechan ism of force generation, is introduced.