| parabasal filament | Term formerly used for rhizoplast. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| parabasal body | A term formerly equivalent to the DNA kinetoplast, part of the giant mitochondrion of certain parasitic flagellates. The parabasal body plus the basal body were previously thought to comprise a kinetoplast, or locomotory apparatus, but kinetoplast is now restricted to part of the DNA giant mitochondrion and parabasal body is a distinct structure near the nucleus, probably equivalent to the metazoan Golgi apparatus. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| actin filament | One of the contractile elements in muscular fibres and other cells; in skeletal muscle, the actin filament's are about 5 nm wide and 100 um long, and attach to the transverse Z filament's. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial filament | The central filament of a flagellum or cilium; with the electron microscope it is seen as a complex of nine peripheral diplomicrotubules and a central pair of microtubules. Synonym: axoneme. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bipolar filament | <cell biology> Filaments that have opposite polarity at the two ends, classic example is the thick filament of striated muscle. (18 Nov 1997) |
| glial filament | <cell biology> Intermediate filaments of glial cells, made of glial fibrillary acidic protein. (17 Dec 1997) |
| myosin filament | One of the contractile elements in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle fibres; in skeletal muscle, the filament is about 10 nm thick and 1.5 um long. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sliding filament hypothesis | The theory that the contracting muscle shortens because two sets of filaments slide past each other. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sliding filament model | <cell biology> Generally accepted model for the way in which contraction occurs in the sarcomere of striated muscle, by the sliding of the thick filaments relative to the thin filaments. (18 Nov 1997) |
| spermatic filament | A spermatozoon, especially the tail of a spermatozoon. (05 Mar 2000) |
| intermediate filament | <cell biology> A class of cytoplasmic filaments of animal cells so named originally because their diameter (nominally 10 nm) in muscle cells was intermediate between thick and thin filaments. Unlike microfilaments and microtubules, the protein sub units of intermediate filaments show considerable diversity and tissue specificity. See: cytokeratins, desmin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, neurofilament proteins, nestin and vimentin (18 Nov 1997) |
| intermediate filament proteins | Filaments 7-11 nm in diameter found in the cytoplasm of all cells. Many specific proteins belong to this group, e.g., desmin, vimentin, prekeratin, decamin, skeletin, neurofilin, neurofilament protein, and glial fibrillary acid protein. (12 Dec 1998) |
| thick filament | <cell biology> Bipolar myosin II filaments (12-14nm diameter, 1.6m long) found in striated muscle. Myosin filaments elsewhere are often referred to as thick filaments, although their length may be considerably less. The myosin heads project from the thick filament in a regular fashion. There is a central bare zone without projecting heads, the core being formed from antiparallel arrays of LMM regions of the myosin heavy chains. Thick filaments will self assemble in vitro under the right ionic conditions. (18 Nov 1997) |
| thin filament | Filaments 7-9nm diameter attached to the Z discs of striated muscle, have opposite polarity in each half sarcomere. Built of F actin with associated tropomyosin and troponin. (18 Nov 1997) |
| Z filament | The thin zig-zag structure at the Z line of striated muscle fibres to which the actin filament's attach. (05 Mar 2000) |
| filament | See: thick filaments, thin filaments, intermediate filaments and microfilaments. (18 Nov 1997) |