Genomic and metabolic preparation of muscle in sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka for spawning migration.

Prolonged endurance exercise and fasting are two major metabolic challenges facing Pacific salmon during spawning migrations that often occur over 1,000 km. Because both prolonged exercise and fasting stimulate the oxidation of lipids, particularly in heavily recruited tissues such as muscle, we sought to investigate the regulatory mechanisms that establish and maintain the capacity for substrate oxidation at four separate locations during the …