Oxygen transport, tissue glycogen stores, and tissue pyruvate kinase activity in muskrats
Oxygen stores, respiratory properties of blood, tissue glycogen concentrations, and the rate-limiting enzyme for glycolysis, pyruvate kinase, were examined in muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus). Of the potential oxygen stores, lung volume (19.6 ± 0.68 mL/kg), and blood hemoglobin concentration (13.0 ± 0.34 g Hb/100 mL blood) were typical of terrestrial mammals, while concentrations of myoglobin in heart (7.4 ± 0.1 mg Mb/g tissue) and gastrocnemius muscle (13.3 ± 0.5 mg Mb/g tissue) were significantly higher than values from the same tissues in the laboratory rat. Blood P50 (oxygen half-saturation pressure) at pH 7.4, 24.4 ± 1.36 Torr (1 Torr = 133.322 Pa), and Bohr effect, −0.64 ± 0.04, also were significantly different, while the Hill coefficient and buffering capacity were comparable for both species. Of our measures of anaerobic capacity, glycogen concentrations and pyruvate kinase activities in heart, brain, and gastrocnemius muscle of O. zibethicus were all comparable to values obtained for terrestrial mammals. We conclude that muskrats tolerate submersion by adaptations associated with aerobic metabolism, although a review of the literature shows that these adaptations are fully developed only in animals freshly captured during winter.