QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online October 19, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3798-3804 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.003897

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Davies, R. Articles by Moyes, C. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Davies, R. Articles by Moyes, C. D. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Allometric scaling in centrarchid fish: origins of intra- and inter-specific variation in oxidative and glycolytic enzyme levels in muscle

Rhiannon Davies and Christopher D. Moyes^*

Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: Moyesc{at}biology.queensu.ca)

Accepted 16 August 2007

The influence of body size on metabolic rate, muscle enzyme activities and the underlying patterns of mRNA for these enzymes were explored in an effort to explain the genetic basis of allometric variation in metabolic enzymes. We studied two pairs of sister species of centrarchid fish: black bass (largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieui) and sunfish (pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus and bluegill Lepomis macrochirus). Our goal was to assess the regulatory basis of both intraspecific and interspecific variation relative to body size, as well as to gain insights into the evolutionary constraints within lineages. Whole animal routine metabolic rate showed scaling coefficients not significantly different from 1, ranging from (+0.87 to +0.96). However, there were significant effects of body size on the specific activities of oxidative and glycolytic enzymes. Mass-specific activity of the oxidative enzyme citrate synthase (CS) scaled negatively with body size in each species, with scaling coefficients ranging from –0.15 to –0.19, whereas the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase (PK) showed positive scaling, with scaling coefficients ranging from +0.08 to +0.23. The ratio of mass-specific enzyme activity in PK to CS increased with body size, whereas the ratio of mRNA transcripts of PK to CS was unaffected, suggesting the enzyme relationships were not due simply to transcriptional regulation of both genes. The mass-dependent differences in PK activities were best explained by transcriptional regulation of the muscle PK gene; PK mRNA was a good predictor of PK specific enzyme activity within species and between species. Conversely, CS mRNA did not correlate with CS specific enzyme activities, suggesting post-transcriptional mechanisms may explain the observed inter-specific and intraspecific differences in oxidative enzymes.

Key words: allometry, metabolism, white muscle energetics, citrate synthase, pyruvate kinase

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. A. Johnston, H.-T. Lee, D. J. Macqueen, K. Paranthaman, C. Kawashima, A. Anwar, J. R. Kinghorn, and T. Dalmay Embryonic temperature affects muscle fibre recruitment in adult zebrafish: genome-wide changes in gene and microRNA expression associated with the transition from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth phenotypes J. Exp. Biol., June 15, 2009; 212(12): 1781 - 1793. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. R. Donovan and T. T. Gleeson Scaling the duration of activity relative to body mass results in similar locomotor performance and metabolic costs in lizards J. Exp. Biol., October 15, 2008; 211(20): 3258 - 3265. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]