Elite human and animal athletes must acquire the fuels necessary for extreme feats, but also contend with the oxidative damage associated with peak metabolic performance. Here, we show that a migratory bird with fuel stores composed of more omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) expended 11% less energy during long-duration (6 hr) flights with no change in oxidative costs; however, this short-term energy savings came at the long-term cost of higher oxidative damage in the omega-6 PUFA-fed birds. Given that fatty acids are primary fuels, key signaling molecules, the building blocks of cell membranes, and that oxidative damage has long-term consequences for health and ageing, the energy savings-oxidative cost trade-off demonstrated here may be fundamentally important for a wide diversity of organisms on earth.
Langlois, L., Engel, S., Speakman, J. R., Fatica, O., DeMoranville, K., Goymann, W., Trost, L., Bryla, A., Dzialo, M., Sadowska, E., & Bauchinger, U. (2020 Dec 11). The energy savings-oxidative cost trade-off for migratory birds during endurance flight. eLife, 9, e60626. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60626
Olivia Fatica is a Biology Lab Assistant at Sacred Heart University.
Published: 11 December 2020.
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