Complex I is bypassed during high intensity exercise

Avlant Nilsson, Elias Björnson, Mikael Flockhart, Filip J. Larsen, Jens Nielsen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Human muscles are tailored towards ATP synthesis. When exercising at high work rates muscles convert glucose to lactate, which is less nutrient efficient than respiration. There is hence a trade-off between endurance and power. Metabolic models have been developed to study how limited catalytic capacity of enzymes affects ATP synthesis. Here we integrate an enzyme-constrained metabolic model with proteomics data from muscle fibers. We find that ATP synthesis is constrained by several enzymes. A metabolic bypass of mitochondrial complex I is found to increase the ATP synthesis rate per gram of protein compared to full respiration. To test if this metabolic mode occurs in vivo, we conduct a high resolved incremental exercise tests for five subjects. Their gas exchange at different work rates is accurately reproduced by a whole-body metabolic model incorporating complex I bypass. The study therefore shows how proteome allocation influences metabolism during high intensity exercise.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5072
JournalNature Communications
Volume10
Issue number1
Number of pages11
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

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