Final answer:
The muscle tissue featuring striations and peripherally located nuclei is skeletal muscle, characterized as voluntary and responsible for moving the skeleton. These muscle cells are long, cylindrical, and multinucleated, with distinctive striated patterns due to the arrangement of actin and myosin proteins.
Step-by-step explanation:
The muscle tissue that shows striations and peripherally located nuclei is skeletal muscle. This type of muscle tissue is also known as striated muscle due to the regular arrangement of contractile proteins, specifically actin and myosin, which give it a striped appearance under a microscope. Skeletal muscles are under voluntary control, meaning they are consciously controlled by the somatic nervous system. These muscles are responsible for moving bones and various forms of locomotion.
Skeletal muscle cells are characterized as long, cylindrical fibers that can span long distances within the body. The striated appearance is a result of the organized overlapping pattern of the actin and myosin proteins. Furthermore, skeletal muscle cells are multinucleated; they have multiple nuclei located at the edge or periphery of the cell. This multinucleated feature is due to the fusion of myoblasts during development, which merge to form each individual muscle fiber.
In contrast to skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, which also displays striations, typically has a single nucleus located centrally within the cell. On the other hand, smooth muscle, found in the walls of internal organs, does not show striations and has only one nucleus per cell. Therefore, the distinct combination of striations with peripherally located nuclei unequivocally identifies the muscle tissue as skeletal.