1. In a single skinned fibre of rabbit psoas muscle, upon attachment of cross bridges to actin in the presence of ADP or pyrophosphate (PPi), the separation between the contractile filaments, as determined by equatorial X-ray diffraction, is found to decrease, suggesting that force is generated in the radial direction. 2. The single muscle fibres were subjected to compression by 0-8% of dextran T500. The changes in lattice spacings by dextran compression were compared with changes induced by cross-bridge attachment to actin. Based on this comparison, the magnitude and the direction of the radial force generated by the attached cross-bridges were estimated. The radial cross-bridge force varied with filament separation, and the magnitude of the radial cross-bridge force reached as high as the maximal axial force produced during isometric contraction. 3. One key parameter of the radial elasticity, i.e. the equilibrium spacing where the radial force is zero, was found to depend on the ligand bound to the myosin head. In the presence of ADP, the equilibrium spacing was 36 nm. In the presence of MgPPi the equilibrium spacing shifted to 35 nm and Ca2+ had little effect on the equilibrium spacing. 4. The equilibrium spacing was independent of the fraction of cross-bridges attached to actin. The fraction of cross-bridges attached in rigor was modulated from 100% to close to 0% by adding up to 10 mM of ATP gamma S in the rigor solution. The lattice spacing remained at 38 nm, the equilibrium spacing for nucleotide-free cross-bridges at mu = 170 mM. 5. Radial force generated by cross-bridges in rigor at large lattice spacings (38 nm < or = d10 < or = 46 nm) appeared to vary linearly with lattice spacing. 6. The titration of ATP gamma S to fibres in rigor provided a correlation between the radial stiffness of the nucleotide-free cross-bridges and the equatorial intensities. The relation between the equatorial intensity ratio I11/I10 and radial stiffness appeared to be approximately linear. 7. The fibres under different conditions showed a wide range of radial stiffness, which was not proportional to the apparent axial stiffness of the fibre. If the apparent axial stiffness is a measure of the fraction of cross-bridges bound to actin, it follows that the radial elastic constant is state dependent; or vice versa.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)