A proposed role for non-junctional transverse tubules in skeletal muscle as flexible segments allowing expansion of the transverse network

Using a variety of technical approaches, we have detected the presence of continuous triads that cover the entire length of T tubules in the main white body muscles of several small fish. This is in contrast to the discontinuous association of sarcoplasmic reticulum with T tubules in the red muscles from the same fish as well as in all other previously described muscles in a large variety of skeletal muscles. We suggest that continuous triads...