Skeletal Muscle

Skeletal muscle is a form of striated muscle tissue which is under the control of the somatic nervous system; that is to say, it is voluntarily controlled. It is one of three major muscle types, the others being cardiac and smooth muscle. As their name suggests, most skeletal muscles are attached to bones by bundles of collagen fibers known as tendons.

Skeletal muscle is made up of individual components known as myocytes, or "muscle cells", sometimes colloquially called "muscle fibers". They are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts (a type of embryonic progenitor cell that gives rise to a muscle cell) in a process known as myogenesis. These long, cylindrical, multinucleated cells are also called myofibers.

The myofibers are in turn composed of myofibrils. The myofibrils are composed of actin and myosin filaments repeated as a sarcomere, the basic functional unit of the muscle fiber and responsible for skeletal muscle's striated appearance and forming the basic machinery necessary for muscle contraction. The term muscle refers to multiple bundles of muscle fibers held together by connective tissue.

Read more about Skeletal Muscle:  Muscle Fibers, Cellular Physiology and Contraction, Physics, Signal Transduction Pathways, Research, See Also