The foundation of excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle: Communication between the transverse tubules and sarcoplasmic reticulum

The least understood part of the series of events in excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle was how information was transmitted from the transverse tubules to the sarcoplasmic (SR) and how Ca 2+ was released from the SR. Through an explosion of technical approaches including physiological, biochemical, structural, pharmacological, and molecular genetics, much was discovered between 1970 and 1988. By the end of 1988, the foundation of EC coupling in skeletal muscle was established.