Darveau 2013 Abstract MiP2013

Darveau CA, Teulier L, Crevier J, Weber JM (2013) Diversity and evolution of mitochondrial metabolism: Proline as a metabolic reward for pollinators. Mitochondr Physiol Network 18.08.

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MiP2013, Book of Abstracts Open Access

Darveau CA, Teulier L, Crevier J, Weber JM (2013)

Event: MiPNet18.08_MiP2013

Insect flight is the most energy demanding activity performed by animals. Flight muscle tissue is extremely diverse, ranging in contraction frequency depending on the species and lifestyle, to metabolic fuels used as a function of metabolic flux rate and ecological opportunities. Pollinators such as bees have developed an intimate relationship with flowering plants and coevolved. Bee flight requires high metabolic rate to perform maneuvering flight, and are thought to have become specialized in using carbohydrate as sole metabolic fuel. Plant physiologists have recently documented that a considerable amount of energy is invested in producing the amino acid proline in plant nectar. Yet, the most common bee model species, the honeybee, does not appear to be capable of oxidizing proline as muscle metabolic fuel. Using permeabilized insect flight muscle fibers, we investigated the diversity and evolution of proline as a metabolic fuel in bees and wasps. I will show how the honeybee is not representative of hymenopterans as a group as it cannot oxidize proline while its sister species, a bumblebee, and a representative of their ancestral group, a wasp, can substantially increase muscle respiration using proline. We further described muscle metabolic phenotype of the bumblebee and show how proline greatly enhance oxidation of pyruvate. This work illustrates how proline can be used as a metabolic reward for pollinators, and the diversity and evolution of mitochondrial metabolism will be discussed in this context. I will integrate this new aspect of flight muscle metabolism evolution with the work I had started as a graduate student with Peter Hochachka.

• Keywords: Bee, Wasp, Proline

• O2k-Network Lab: CA Ottawa Darveau CA

Labels: MiParea: Respiration, Comparative MiP;environmental MiP, Exercise physiology;nutrition;life style 

Organism: Hexapods  Tissue;cell: Skeletal muscle  Preparation: Permeabilized tissue 

Regulation: Substrate  Coupling state: OXPHOS  Pathway: N, S, Gp, NS, Other combinations  HRR: Oxygraph-2k 

MiP2013, S03 

Affiliations and author contributions

University of Ottawa, Dept of Biology, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, ON, Canada. - Email: [email protected]