Aerobic characteristics of red kangaroo skeletal muscles: is a high aerobic capacity matched by muscle mitochondrial and capillary morphology as in placental mammals?

The Journal of Experimental Biology
T J DawsonK N Webster

Abstract

Marsupials and placentals together comprise the Theria, the advanced mammals, but they have had long independent evolutionary histories, with the last common ancestor occurring more than 125 million years ago. Although in the past the marsupials were considered to be metabolically 'primitive', the red kangaroo Macropus rufus has been reported to have an aerobic capacity (VO2max) comparable to that of the most 'athletic' of placentals such as dogs. However, kangaroos travel at moderate speeds with lower relative cost than quadrupedal placentals. Given the long independent evolution of the two therian groups, and their unusual locomotor energetics, do kangaroos achieve their high aerobic capacity using the same structural and functional mechanisms used by (athletic) placentals? Red kangaroo skeletal muscle morphometry matched closely the general aerobic characteristics of placental mammals. The relationship between total mitochondrial volume in skeletal muscle and VO2max during exercise was identical to that in quadrupedal placentals, and differed from that in bipedal humans. As for placentals generally, red kangaroo mitochondrial oxygen consumption at VO2max was 4.7 ml O2 min(-1) ml(-1) of mitochondria. Also, the inner mitochond...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 3, 2007·Journal of Comparative Physiology. B, Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology·Terence J DawsonShane K Maloney
Jul 6, 2014·Biology Letters·Shawn M O'ConnorJ Maxwell Donelan
Oct 21, 2006·Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care·Nigel TurnerPaul L Else
Sep 14, 2013·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Elizabeth M DlugoszTheodore Garland

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