Metabolic responses to exhaustive exercise change markedly during the protracted non-trophic spawning migration of the lamprey Geotria australis

Abstract

Adults of the Southern hemisphere lamprey Geotria australis were subjected to an exercise/recovery regime at the commencement and end of their 12–15 month non-trophic, upstream spawning migration. In early (immature) migrants and pre-spawning females, muscle glycogen was markedly depleted during exercise, but became rapidly replenished. As muscle lactate rose during exercise and peaked 1–1.5 h into the recovery period, and therefore after muscle glycogen had become replenished, it cannot be the direct source for that replenishment. However, both plasma lactate and glycerol (but not muscle glycerol and glucose) rose sharply during exercise and then declined markedly during the first 0.5 h of recovery and thus exhibited the opposite trend to that of muscle glycogen, implying that these limited pools of glycogenic precursors contribute to glycogen replenishment. Although plasma glucose rose following exercise, and consequently could also be a precursor for muscle glycogen replenishment, it remained elevated even after muscle glycogen had become replenished. While resting pre-spawning females and mature males retained high muscle glycogen concentrations, this energy store became permanently depleted in females during spawning. In mature males, muscle glycogen remained high and lactate low during the exercise/recovery regime, whereas muscle glycerol declined precipitously during exercise and then rose rapidly. In summary, vigorous activity by G. australis is fuelled extensively by anaerobic metabolism of glycogen early in the spawning run and by pre-spawning females, but by aerobic metabolism of its energy reserves in mature males.