Metamorphosis of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata LeSeur: I. Changes in metabolism of skeletal muscle.

Unequivocal demarcation between immature, nonmigratory yellow eels and migratory silver eels of greater sexual maturity is possible by measuring eye diameter and retinal capillary length, which undergo a 1.5- and 2.3-fold increase during metamorphosis, respectively. Anatomical arrangement of trunk musculature is similar in the two groups except for an increased depth of slow muscle in silver eel. Histochemical analysis reveals a progressive increase in numbers of "displaced" fast fibres within slow muscle of the lateral line triangle in maturing eels, although these are unlikely to affect recruitment pattern of muscle fibre types. Previous studies have suggested greater involvement of fast muscle in locomotion of migratory eels. In contrast, estimates of enzyme activity in fast muscle suggest an inadequate aerobic capacity to fuel sustained activity. Myoglobin content is extremely low, around 0.4 nM g wet wt-1. Prolonged anaerobic metabolism is also discounted as a migratory strategy. Increased energy provision for migration is apparently derived from increased capacity for both aerobic carbohydrate metabolism and mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation within slow muscle of silver eels. Activity of hexokinase (HK) shows a 1.6-fold increase (to 0.51 microM g wet wt-1) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) a 3.1-fold increase (to 0.22 microM g wet wt-1 min-1), suggesting a maximal flux through these pathways of 18 and 14 ATP equivalents, respectively. However, the fatty acyl transferase system of skeletal muscle mitochondria displays up to threefold greater activity with palmitoleoyl CoA (C16:1) as substrate than with the usual palmitoyl CoA (C16:0). Slow muscle of silver eel is therefore capable of deriving aerobic energy from free fatty acids and carbohydrate in the ratio 2.3:1. Differences in aerobic enzyme activities are not paralleled by myoglobin content of slow muscle, being 15 and 16 nM g wet wt-1 for yellow and silver eel, respectively. Structural reorganization of muscle fibres during metamorphosis, however, results in a twofold elevation of cytoplasmic myoglobin concentration in silver eel. It would appear that dramatic differences in metabolic capacity between life history stages of eel is required to overcome locomotory inefficiency of yellow eels and to "preadapt" silver eels for migratory activity. This increased locomotory capacity may be amplified by a subsequent training response.