Describe the hierarchical organization of skeletal muscle from the whole muscle down to the contractile proteins.
Skeletal muscle is organized from the whole muscle, which is made up of bundles of fascicles. Each fascicle contains bundles of muscle fibers (muscle cells), which are surrounded by endomysium. Each muscle fiber contains many myofibrils, which are bundles of myofilaments. The myofilaments are primarily actin and myosin proteins, organized into repeating units called sarcomeres, the fundamental contractile units of muscle.