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Symmorphosis and livestock bioenergetics: production animal muscle has low mitochondrial volume fractions
Author(s) -
Hudson N. J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2007.00791.x
Subject(s) - bioenergetics , livestock , production (economics) , volume (thermodynamics) , animal production , biology , chemistry , mitochondrion , zoology , ecology , microbiology and biotechnology , physics , quantum mechanics , economics , macroeconomics
Summary A comparative analysis of skeletal muscle structure reveals that production species (nine species, representing three mammalian families and an avian family) have mitochondrial volume fractions (MVF) 37% lower than the non‐production species at equivalent size (17 species, with representatives from 10 mammalian families) ( Fig. 1; F 1,25 = 4.79; p = 0.039). As MVF provides evidence of oxidative capacity, this comparative analysis indicates that production animals share an exceptionally low oxidative capacity muscle phenotype. A possible bioenergetic reason for this observation, relating to a reduction in the cost of maintaining trans‐membrane ion gradients is briefly discussed. This discussion is framed within a biological economic design theory called symmorphosis and makes predictions about avenues for improvements in livestock bioenergetics. 1 The scaling of log skeletal muscle mitochondrial volume density (MVF) with log endotherm size. Production species (PS) (red circles, red line) have a 37% lower MVF than non‐production species (NPS) (blue circles, blue line). NPS log MVF = −0.11 log M b + 0.88 ( r 2 = 0.48, n = 17). PS log MVF = −0.11 log M b + 0.74 ( r 2 = 0.69, n = 9).