The Role of Protein Synthesis During Metabolic Depression in the Australian Desert Frog Neobatrachus centralis

• Published in: Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology Vol. 119; no. 2; pp. 469 - 476
• Main Authors: Fuery, Caroline J., Withers, Philip C., Hobbs, Andrew A., Guppy, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.02.1998
• Subjects: Aestivation; Amino Acids - pharmacokinetics; amphibian; Animals; Anura - metabolism; Australia; Basal Metabolism - drug effects; Basal Metabolism - physiology; cycloheximide; Cycloheximide - pharmacology; Desert Climate; Estivation - physiology; Freshwater; Isotonic Solutions - pharmacology; Liver - metabolism; metabolic depression; Neobatrachus centralis; oxygen consumption; Oxygen Consumption - physiology; Protein Biosynthesis; protein synthesis; Protein Synthesis Inhibitors - pharmacology; Species Specificity; Australia; cycloheximide; protein synthesis; metabolic depression; Aestivation; amphibian; oxygen consumption
• ISSN: 1095-6433; 1531-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/S1095-6433(97)00453-4

Little is known about the role of energy consuming processes during metabolic depression. We have shown that aestivation in the Australian desert frog Neobatrachus centralis is accompanied by an in vivo metabolic depression of 77%. Using an in vitro liver slice preparation, we have measured an in vitro metabolic depression in liver of 55% with a concomitant 67% decrease in the rate of protein synthesis. The decrease in protein synthesis accounts for 52% of the metabolic depression of the tissue, but only 4.9% of the metabolic depression of the whole animal. No in vitro metabolic depression or decrease in protein synthesis during aestivation was measured in muscle, but a decrease in the low rate of protein synthesis in muscle in vivo could not, in any case, account for more than 3% of the metabolic depression of the whole animal. The liver, although not a quantitatively important tissue in terms of metabolic depression in vivo, offers the opportunity to characterise the regulation of protein synthesis in a system in which metabolic depression is not confounded by changes in ambient temperature and P O 2 .