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Glycolysis activity in flight muscles of birds according to their physiological function. An experimental model in vitro to study aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis activity separately

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Abstract

An experimental system in vitro is presented to assess the activity of the entire glycolysis in tissue extracts, which allows determining aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis activities separately. Glycolysis activity has been measured in pectoral and supracoracoideus muscles of the homing pigeon and the domestic fowl. These muscles support different aspects of flight in the two birds and are representative models of the two kinds of basic movements, endurance and sprint. The results obtained showed that in type I red fibers (pigeon pectoral), glucose produced a high glycolytic activity, while it was a poor substrate for type IIb white fibers (fowl pectoral and the two supracoracoideus). White fibers, however, attained its maximum glycolytic activity with phosphorylated glucose as substrate. These results demonstrated the validity of the experimental system as a method for assaying the two kinds of glycolytic activity in tissues, and supply new information about the biochemical and physiological features of these types of fibers.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research grants from Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes del Gobierno de Canarias (Spain), Ref. 1999/119; Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain), Ref. BMC2000-0286, and with funds from the Program for Scientific Research of Instituto del Metabolismo Celular, Tenerife (Spain), Ref. IMC-PI-005/2004. D.M.-M. was recipient of a fellowship from Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes (Canarias Government), and P·P.-L. was recipient of a fellowship from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spanish Government).

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  1. David Meléndez-Morales, Patricia de Paz-Lugo & Enrique Meléndez-Hevia

    Present address: Departamento de Investigación Científica, Instituto del Metabolismo Celular, Carretera Vecinal de El Sauzal nº 160 A, El Sauzal, 38360, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

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  1. Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, 38204, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

    David Meléndez-Morales, Patricia de Paz-Lugo & Enrique Meléndez-Hevia

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  1. David Meléndez-Morales
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Correspondence to Enrique Meléndez-Hevia.

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Meléndez-Morales, D., de Paz-Lugo, P. & Meléndez-Hevia, E. Glycolysis activity in flight muscles of birds according to their physiological function. An experimental model in vitro to study aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis activity separately. Mol Cell Biochem 328, 127–135 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-009-0082-9

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