Reduction of type IIb myosin and IIB fibers in tibialis anterior muscle of mini-muscle mice from high-activity lines.

Selective breeding of laboratory house mice (Mus domesticus) for high voluntary wheel running has generated four replicate lines that show an almost threefold increase in daily wheel-running distances as compared with four nonselected control lines. An unusual hindlimb "mini-muscle" phenotype (small muscles, increased mitochondrial enzyme levels, disorganized fiber distribution) has increased in frequency in two of the four replicate selected lines. The gene of major effect that accounts for this phenotype is an autosomal recessive that has been mapped to a 2.6335 Mb interval on MMU11, but not yet identified. This study examined the tibialis anterior muscle to determine whether changes in muscle fiber types could explain such modifications in muscle size and properties. Although selected and control lines did not exhibit systematic differences in the fiber types present in the tibialis anterior muscle, as assessed by electrophoresis of myosin heavy chains (MHC) and by histochemistry, mini-muscle mice lacked type IIB fibers and the corresponding MHCs. Mini-muscle tibialis show increased activities of hexokinase and citrate synthase compared with the normally sized muscles, likely the result of the modified fiber types in the muscle. The mini-muscle phenotype is the major means through which selective breeding for high wheel running has modified the functional capacities of the hindlimb muscles, as normally sized tibialis anterior muscles from control and selected lines did not show general differences in their enzymatic capacities, MHC profiles or fiber type composition, with the exception of an elevated hexokinase activity and a reduced GPa activity in the selected lines.