scholarly journals Small Ca2+ releases enable hour-long high-frequency contractions in midshipman swimbladder muscle

2017 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank E. Nelson ◽  
Stephen Hollingworth ◽  
James O. Marx ◽  
Stephen M. Baylor ◽  
Lawrence C. Rome

Type I males of the Pacific midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) vibrate their swimbladder to generate mating calls, or “hums,” that attract females to their nests. In contrast to the intermittent calls produced by male Atlantic toadfish (Opsanus tau), which occur with a duty cycle (calling time divided by total time) of only 3–8%, midshipman can call continuously for up to an hour. With 100% duty cycles and frequencies of 50–100 Hz (15°C), the superfast muscle fibers that surround the midshipman swimbladder may contract and relax as many as 360,000 times in 1 h. The energy for this activity is supported by a large volume of densely packed mitochondria that are found in the peripheral and central regions of the fiber. The remaining fiber cross section contains contractile filaments and a well-developed network of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and triadic junctions. Here, to understand quantitatively how Ca2+ is managed by midshipman fibers during calling, we measure (a) the Ca2+ pumping-versus-pCa and force-versus-pCa relations in skinned fiber bundles and (b) changes in myoplasmic free [Ca2+] (Δ[Ca2+]) during stimulated activity of individual fibers microinjected with the Ca2+ indicators Mag-fluo-4 and Fluo-4. As in toadfish, the force–pCa relation in midshipman is strongly right-shifted relative to the Ca2+ pumping–pCa relation, and contractile activity is controlled in a synchronous, not asynchronous, fashion during electrical stimulation. SR Ca2+ release per action potential is, however, approximately eightfold smaller in midshipman than in toadfish. Midshipman fibers have a larger time-averaged free [Ca2+] during activity than toadfish fibers, which permits faster Ca2+ pumping because the Ca2+ pumps work closer to their maximum rate. Even with midshipman’s sustained release and pumping of Ca2+, however, the Ca2+ energy cost of calling (per kilogram wet weight) is less than twofold more in midshipman than in toadfish.

Science ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 197 (4300) ◽  
pp. 257-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. WALKER
Keyword(s):  

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 981-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. T. O'Neill ◽  
F. Kris Aubrey ◽  
David A. Zeldin ◽  
Robin N. Michel ◽  
Earl G. Noble

Heat shock protein 72 (Hsp70) is constitutively expressed in rat hindlimb muscles, reportedly in proportion to their content of type I myosin heavy chain. This distribution pattern has been suggested to result from the higher recruitment and activity of such muscles and/or a specific relationship between myosin phenotype and Hsp70 content. To differentiate between these possibilities, the fiber-specific distribution of Hsp70 was examined in male Sprague-Dawley rat plantaris under control conditions, following a fast-to-slow phenotypic shift in response to surgically induced overload (O) and in response to O when the phenotypic shift was prevented by 3,5,3′-triiodo-dl-thyronine administration. Constitutive expression of Hsp70 was restricted to type I and IIa fibers in plantaris from control rats, and this fiber-specific pattern of expression was maintained following O of up to 28 days, although Hsp70 content in the O muscle doubled. When O (for 40 days) of the plantaris was combined with 3,5,3′-triiodo-dl-thyronine administration, despite typical hypertrophy in the overloaded plantaris, prevention of the normal phenotypic transformation also blocked the increased expression of Hsp70 observed in euthyroid controls. Collectively, these data suggest that chronic changes in constitutive expression of Hsp70 with altered contractile activity appear critically dependent on fast-to-slow phenotypic remodeling.


1990 ◽  
Vol 259 (4) ◽  
pp. E593-E598 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Henriksen ◽  
R. E. Bourey ◽  
K. J. Rodnick ◽  
L. Koranyi ◽  
M. A. Permutt ◽  
...  

The relationships among fiber type, glucose transporter (GLUT-4) protein content, and glucose transport activity stimulated maximally with insulin and/or contractile activity were studied by use of the rat epitrochlearis (15% type I-20% type II2a-65% type IIb), soleus (84-16-0%), extensor digitorum longus (EDL, 3-57-40%), and flexor digitorum brevis (FDB, 7-92-1%) muscles. Insulin-stimulated 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) uptake was greatest in the soleus, followed (in order) by the FDB, EDL, and epitrochlearis. On the other hand, contractile activity induced the greatest increase in 2-DG uptake in the FDB, followed by the EDL, soleus, and epitrochlearis. The effects of insulin and contractile activity on 2-DG uptake were additive in all the muscle preparations, with the relative rates being FDB greater than soleus greater than EDL greater than epitrochlearis. Quantitation of the GLUT-4 protein content with the antiserum R820 showed the following pattern: FDB greater than soleus greater than EDL greater than epitrochlearis. Linear regression analysis showed that whereas a relatively low and nonsignificant correlation existed between GLUT-4 protein content and 2-DG uptake stimulated by insulin alone, significant correlations existed between GLUT-4 protein content and 2-DG uptake stimulated either by contractions alone (r = 0.950) or by insulin and contractions in combination (r = 0.992). These results suggest that the differences in maximally stimulated glucose transport activity among the three fiber types may be related to differences in their content of GLUT-4 protein.


Author(s):  
Samuel M. Bartlett ◽  
Jason M. Cordeira

AbstractAtmospheric rivers (ARs) are synoptic-scale phenomena associated with long, narrow corridors of enhanced low-level water vapor transport. Landfalling ARs may produce numerous beneficial (e.g. drought amelioration and watershed recharge) and hazardous (e.g. flash flooding and heavy snow) impacts that may require the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue watches, warnings, and advisories (WWAs) for hazardous weather. Prior research on WWAs and ARs in California found that 50–70% of days with flood-related and 60–80% of days with winter weather-related WWAs occurred on days with landfalling ARs in California. The present study further investigates this relationship for landfalling ARs and WWAs during the cool seasons of 2006–2018 across the entire western U.S. and considers additional dimensions of AR intensity and duration. Across the western U.S., regional maxima of 70–90% of days with WWAs issued for any hazard type were associated with landfalling ARs. In the Pacific Northwest and Central regions, flood-related and wind-related WWAs were also more frequently associated with more intense and longer duration ARs. While a large majority of days with WWAs were associated with landfalling ARs, not all landfalling ARs were necessarily associated with WWAs (i.e., not all ARs are hazardous). For example, regional maxima of only 50–70% of AR days were associated with WWAs issued for any hazard type. However, as landfalling AR intensity and duration increased, the association with a WWA and the “hazard footprint” of WWAs increased quasi-exponentially across the western U.S.


The Auk ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Hoffman ◽  
John A. Wiens ◽  
J. Michael Scott

Abstract Interbreeding between Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) and Western Gulls (L. occidentalis) occurs extensively within a 180-km zone along the Washington coast, producing a high frequency of intermediate morphs in breeding populations. We conducted intensive studies on Destruction Island, Washington, in the midst of the zone of hybridization. There over half of the breeding birds were phenotypically intergrades between pure Glaucous-winged and Western gulls in characters of iris and eye-ring coloration, mantle shade, and wing tip pattern. Mating patterns of Destruction Island gulls were assortative, individuals pairing with mates similar to themselves. Pairs composed of pure Glaucous-winged or Western gulls hatched significantly fewer eggs than pairs containing at least one hybrid individual. The greater apparent reproductive success of the intergrades would seem to be countered by the assortative mating patterns, possibly providing conditions sufficient to maintain an equilibrium system containing both pure types as well as intergrades. These conditions are explored in a simulation model that considered immigration, density-dependent fecundity, pairing and reproduction, and mortality. A stable colony of mixed composition may be maintained by a regular but small influx of pure types into the colony.


1980 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 595-600
Author(s):  
R. Canal ◽  
J. Isern ◽  
J. Labay

Abstract.Mass-accreting carbon-oxygen white dwarfs become thermally and dynamically unstable when they reach high enough central densities. Carbon ignition at the star’s center likely propagates subsonically and, in the case of an initially solid core, leads to collapse if the rate of increase of the core’s mass is sufficiently fast. Recent results indicate, however, that solidification of the core induces carbon-oxygen separation. The central regions are then made of pure oxygen while carbon is rejected to lower-density layers. Carbon ignition happens only after neutronization of the central (oxygen) regions. Collapse to a neutron star is then independent from the rate of mass increase and the only possible restrictions are set by the behaviour of the outer, accreted layers. X-ray sources, pulsars and Type I supernovae are likely outcomes of this process.


1985 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 818-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Dum ◽  
M. J. O'Donovan ◽  
J. Toop ◽  
R. E. Burke

The properties of flexor digitorum longus (FDL) muscles and of individual motor units were studied in cats 30-50 wk after self-reinnervation by FDL motoneurons (FDL----FDL) or cross-reinnervation by soleus (SOL) motoneurons (SOL----FDL). Individual motor units were functionally isolated by intracellular recording and stimulation of identified SOL alpha-motoneurons. Glycogen-depletion methods permitted histochemical study of muscle fibers belonging to physiologically characterized muscle units. The observations were compared with data from normal cat FDL muscles and motor units (27). Intentionally self-reinnervated FDL muscles (FDL----FDL; n = 5) were normal in size and wet weight. FDL----FDL motor units could be classified into the same physiological categories found in normal FDL [types: fast contracting, fatigable (FF), fast contracting, fatigue resistant (FR), and slow (S); n = 24], with approximately the same proportions as normal. The histochemical muscle fiber types associated with these categories were also qualitatively normal although there was evidence of marked distortion of the normal histochemical mosaic. These data confirm other studies of self-reinnervation and suggest that self-reinnervation can produce complete interconversion of muscle fiber types. Cross-reinnervation of FDL muscle by SOL motoneurons (SOL----FDL; n = 12) produced muscles that were smaller (about half the normal wet weight) and more red than normal. SOL----FDL muscle contracted more slowly than normal or FDL----FDL muscles and had much higher proportions of histochemical type I muscle fibers. In those SOL----FDL muscles, in which little or no unwanted self-reinnervation could be demonstrated, greater than 95% of the muscle fibers were type I. Forty-one individual motor units in SOL----FDL muscles were isolated by intracellular penetration in functionally identified SOL alpha-motoneurons. Their muscle units were all type S by physiological criteria (absence of "sag" in unfused tetani and marked resistance to fatigue). SOL----FDL muscle units had contraction times and fatigue properties that were essentially identical to those of type S units in the normal FDL. All of the seven units, successfully studied by glycogen depletion, exhibited histochemical type I fibers. SOL motoneurons that innervated FDL muscle units had slightly shorter afterhyperpolarization durations than normal SOL cells, but axonal conduction velocities were normal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


2000 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 473-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varvara P. Grichko ◽  
Anne Heywood-Cooksey ◽  
Kameha R. Kidd ◽  
Robert H. Fitts

Limb muscles from rats flown in space and after hindlimb unloading (HU) show an increased fatigability, and spaceflight has been shown to result in a reduced ability to oxidize fatty acids. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of HU on the substrate content in fast- and slow-twitch fibers and to assess the substrate utilization patterns in single slow type I fibers isolated from control and HU animals. A second objective was to assess whether HU altered the ability of the heart or limb muscle to oxidize pyruvate or palmitate. After 2 wk of HU, single fibers were isolated from the freeze-dried soleus and gastrocnemius muscles. HU increased the glycogen content in all fiber types, and it increased lactate, ATP, and phosphocreatine in the slow type I fiber. After HU, the type I fiber substrate profile was shifted toward that observed in fast fibers. For example, fiber glycogen increased from 179 ± 16 to 285 ± 25 mmol/kg dry wt, which approached the 308 ± 23 mmol/kg dry wt content observed in the post-HU type IIa fiber. With contractile activity, the type I fiber from the HU animal showed a greater utilization of glycogen and accumulation of lactate compared with the control type I fiber. HU had no effect on the ability of crude homogenate or mitochondria fractions from the soleus or gastrocnemius to oxidize pyruvate or palmitate. The increased fatigability after HU may have resulted from an elevated glycolysis producing an increased cell lactate and a decreased pH.


2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 2713-2725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daofen Chen ◽  
Eberhard E. Fetz

We examined the membrane potentials and firing properties of motor cortical neurons recorded intracellularly in awake, behaving primates. Three classes of neuron were distinguished by 1) the width of their spikes, 2) the shape of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP), and 3) the distribution of interspike intervals. Type I neurons had wide spikes, exhibited scoop-shaped AHPs, and fired irregularly. Type II neurons had narrower spikes, showed brief postspike afterdepolarizations before the AHP, and sometimes fired high-frequency doublets. Type III neurons had the narrowest spikes, showed a distinct post-AHP depolarization, or “rebound AHP” (rAHP), lasting nearly 30 ms, and tended to fire at 25–35 Hz. The evidence suggests that an intrinsic rAHP may confer on these neurons a tendency to fire at a preferred frequency governed by the duration of the rAHP and may contribute to a “pacemaking” role in generating cortical oscillations.


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