Convergent changes in muscle metabolism depend on duration of high-altitude ancestry across Andean waterfowl.

ABSTRACT: High-altitude environments require that animals meet the metabolic O₂ demands for locomotion and thermogenesis in O₂-thin air, but the degree to which convergent metabolic changes have arisen across independent high-altitude lineages or the speed at which such changes arise is unclear. We examined seven high-altitude waterfowl that have inhabited the Andes (3812-4806 m elevation) over varying evolutionary time scales, to elucidate changes in biochemical pathways of energy metabolism in flight muscle relative to low-altitude sister taxa. Convergent changes across high-altitude taxa included increased hydroxyacyl-coA dehydrogenase and succinate dehydrogenase activities, decreased lactate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase, creatine kinase, and cytochrome c oxidase activitie

SUBMITTER: Dawson NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7494360 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature