Changes in efficiency and myosin expression in the small-muscle phenotype of mice selectively bred for high voluntary running activity

Mice from lines selectively bred for high levels of voluntary wheel running express a high incidence of a small muscle phenotype ('mini-muscles') that may confer an adaptive advantage with respect to endurance-running capacity. Plantar flexors in the mini-muscle phenotype exhibit a high capacity for aerobic activity, including altered enzyme activities, loss of expression of type IIb myosin heavy chain (MHC), increased expression of type I, IIx and IIa MHC, and mechanical performance consistent with slower, more fatigue-resistant muscles. We hypothesized that these changes may accompany enhanced efficiency of contraction, perhaps in support of the enhanced capacity for endurance running. To assess efficiency, we measured work and associated oxygen consumption from isolated soleus and medial gastrocnemius muscles from mice with mini-muscle and normal phenotypes. We also measured the MHC expression of the plantar flexor muscles to better understand the physiological basis of any differences in efficiency. The proportion of the various MHC isoforms in the soleus was shifted toward a slightly faster phenotype in the mini-muscle mice, whereas in the gastrocnemius and plantaris it was shifted toward a markedly slower phenotype, with large reductions in type IIb MHC and large increases in type I, IIa, and IIx MHC. Soleus muscles from normal and mini-muscle mice showed no statistical differences in efficiency, but medial gastrocnemius from mini-muscle mice were significantly less efficient than those from normal mice, despite the distinctly slower MHC phenotype in mini-muscle mice. Thus, based on measures of efficiency from isolated muscles under conditions near optimal for power output, the shift toward a slower phenotype in 'mini' gastrocnemius muscles does not appear to confer advantages directly through increased efficiency. Rather, the slower phenotype may reduce energy used by the muscles and be permissive to enhanced running ability, perhaps by reducing reliance on anaerobic metabolism.