Keratin Keratin Keratin () is one of a family of fibrous structural proteins. It is the key structural material making up hair, horns, claws, hooves, and the outer layer of human skin. Keratin is also the protein that protects epithelial cells from damage or stress. Keratin is extremely insoluble in water and organic solvents. Keratin monomers assemble into bundles to form intermediate filaments, which are tough and form strong unmineralized epidermal appendages found in reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals. The only other biological matter known to approximate the toughness of keratinized tissue is chitin. Keratin derives from Greek ' from '
Myosin cells, the long coiled-coil tails of the individual myosin molecules join together, forming the thick filaments of the sarcomere. The force-producing head domains stick out from the side of the thick filament, ready to walk along the adjacent actin-based thin filaments in response to the proper chemical signals. Myosin III is a poorly understood member of the myosin family. It has been studied "in vivo" in the eyes of "Drosophila", where it is thought to play a role in phototransduction. A human homologue gene for myosin III, MYO3A, has been uncovered through the Human Genome Project and is expressed in