Liquid water is a highly versatile material. Although it is formed from the tiniest of molecules, it can shape and control biomolecules. The hydrogen-bonding properties of water are crucial to this versatility, as they allow water to execute an intricate three-dimensional 'ballet', exchanging partners while retaining complex order and enduring effects. Water can generate small active clusters and macroscopic assemblies, which can both transmit information on different scales.

Do we underestimate the importance of water in cell biology

Metabolic processes are often represented as a group of metabolites that interact through enzymatic reactions, thus forming a network of linked biochemical pathways. Implicit in this view is that diffusion of metabolites to and from enzymes is very fast compared with reaction rates, and metabolic fluxes are therefore almost exclusively dictated by catalytic properties. However, diffusion may exert greater control over the rates of reactions through: (1) an increase in reaction rates; (2) an increase in diffusion distances; or (3) a decrease in the relevant diffusion coefficients. It is therefore not surprising that skeletal muscle fibers have long been the focus of reaction–diffusion analyses because they have high and variable rates of ATP turnover, long diffusion distances, and hindered metabolite diffusion due to an abundance of intracellular barriers. Examination of the diversity of skeletal muscle fiber designs found in animals provides insights into the role that diffusion plays in governing both rates of metabolic fluxes and cellular organization. Experimental measurements of metabolic fluxes, diffusion distances and diffusion coefficients, coupled with reaction–diffusion mathematical models in a range of muscle types has started to reveal some general principles guiding muscle structure and metabolic function. Foremost among these is that metabolic processes in muscles do, in fact, appear to be largely reaction controlled and are not greatly limited by diffusion. However, the influence of diffusion is apparent in patterns of fiber growth and metabolic organization that appear to result from selective pressure to maintain reaction control of metabolism in muscle.

/pdf/molecules-in-motion-influences-of-diffusion-on-metabolic-24ae7e3pve.pdf

Molecules in motion: influences of diffusion on metabolic structure and function in skeletal muscle

The latitudinal extension of southern South America imposes a thermal gradient that affects the structure of marine and freshwater fish assemblages and the biology of the species through direct exposure to the temperature gradients or by means of a web of historical and ecological relationships. We have reviewed biological and ecological data of marine and freshwater fishes from the southern Neotropics, including Patagonia, and report several examples of dependence on temperature, from glacial times to today’s climate change. We were able to identify historic and present effects on the diversity of fish assemblages, isolation, southern limits for the distribution of species, and morphological variation among populations. There is a wide range of characteristics that exemplify an adaptation to low temperatures, including biochemical peculiarities, physiological adjustments, and alternative life history patterns, and these appear in both freshwater and marine, and native and exotic fishes. The consequences of stable temperature regimes in both the ocean and thermal streams deserve special mention as these shape specialists under conditions of low selective pressure. At present, habitat use and interactions among species are being subject to changes as consequences of water temperature, and some of these are already evident in the northern and southern hemispheres.

/pdf/fishes-of-southern-south-america-a-story-driven-by-3lqaypqkhn.pdf

Fishes of southern South America: a story driven by temperature

A fundamental principle of physiology is that cells are small in order to minimize diffusion distances for O(2) and intracellular metabolites. In skeletal muscle, it has long been recognized that aerobic fibers that are used for steady state locomotion tend to be smaller than anaerobic fibers that are used for burst movements. This tendency reflects the interaction between diffusion distances and aerobic ATP turnover rates, since maximal intracellular diffusion distances are ultimately limited by fiber size. The effect of diffusion distance on O(2) flux in muscle has been the subject of quantitative analyses for a century, but the influence of ATP diffusion from mitochondria to cellular ATPases on aerobic metabolism has received much less attention. The application of reaction-diffusion mathematical models to experimental measurements of aerobic metabolic processes has revealed that the extreme diffusion distances between mitochondria found in some muscle fibers do not necessarily limit the rates of aerobic processes per se, as long as the metabolic process is sufficiently slow. However, skeletal muscle fibers from a variety of animals appear to have intracellular diffusion distances and/or fiber sizes that put them on the brink of diffusion limitation. Thus, intracellular metabolite diffusion likely influences the evolution of muscle design and places limits on muscle function.

/pdf/the-long-and-winding-road-influences-of-intracellular-2kkik8mw2k.pdf

The long and winding road: influences of intracellular metabolite diffusion on cellular organization and metabolism in skeletal muscle.

We examined the influence of intracellular diffusion of O(2) and high-energy phosphate (HEP) molecules on the scaling with body mass of the post-exercise whole-animal rate of O(2) consumption (V(O(2))) and muscle arginine phosphate (AP) resynthesis rate, as well as muscle citrate synthase (CS) activity, in three groups of tail-flipping crustaceans. Two size classes in each of three taxa (Palaemonetes pugio, Penaeus spp. and Panulirus argus) were examined that together encompassed a 27,000-fold range in mean body mass. In all species, muscle fiber size increased with body mass and ranged in diameter from 70+/-1.5 to 210+/-8.8 microm. Thus, intracellular diffusive path lengths for O(2) and HEP molecules were greater in larger animals. The body mass scaling exponent, b, for post-tail flipping V(O(2)) (b=-0.21) was not similar to that for the initial rate of AP resynthesis (b=-0.12), which in turn was different from that of CS activity (b=0.09). We developed a mathematical reaction-diffusion model that allowed an examination of the influence of O(2) and HEP diffusion on the observed rate of aerobic flux in muscle. These analyses revealed that diffusion limitation was minimal under most conditions, suggesting that diffusion might act on the evolution of fiber design but usually does not directly limit aerobic flux. However, both within and between species, fibers were more diffusion limited as they grew larger, particularly when hemolymph P(O(2)) was low, which might explain some of the divergence in the scaling exponents of muscle aerobic capacity and muscle aerobic flux.

/pdf/the-influence-of-oxygen-and-high-energy-phosphate-diffusion-44k6kvuae2.pdf

The influence of oxygen and high-energy phosphate diffusion on metabolic scaling in three species of tail-flipping crustaceans

Post-metamorphic growth in the blue crab entails an increase in body mass that spans several orders of magnitude. The muscles that power burst swimming in these animals grow hypertrophically, such that small crabs have fiber diameters that are typical of most cells ( 600·µm). Thus, as the animals grow, their muscle fibers cross and greatly exceed the surface area to volume ratio (SA:V) and intracellular diffusion distance threshold that is adhered to by most cells. Large fiber size should not impact burst contractile function, but post-contractile recovery may be limited by low SA:V and excessive intracellular diffusion distances. A number of changes occur in muscle structure, metabolic organization and metabolic flux during development to compensate for the effects of increasing fiber size. In the present study, we examined the impact of intracellular metabolite diffusive flux on the rate of postcontractile arginine phosphate (AP) resynthesis in burst locomotor muscle from small and large animals. AP recovery was measured following burst exercise, and these data were compared to a mathematical reaction‐diffusion model of aerobic metabolism. The measured rates of AP resynthesis were independent of fiber size, while simulations of aerobic AP resynthesis yielded lower rates in large fibers. These contradictory findings are consistent with previous observations that there is an increased reliance on anaerobic metabolism for post-contractile metabolic recovery in large fibers. However, the model results suggest that the interaction between mitochondrial ATP production rates, ATP consumption rates and diffusion distances yield a system that is not particularly close to being limited by intracellular metabolite diffusion. We conclude that fiber SA:V and O2 flux exert more control than intracellular metabolite diffusive flux over the developmental changes in metabolic organization and metabolic fluxes that characterize these muscles.

/pdf/does-intracellular-metabolite-diffusion-limit-post-56afen4fi2.pdf

Amanda Jordan

Papers

Does intracellular metabolite diffusion limit post-contractile recovery in burst locomotor muscle?