Maximal metabolic rates during voluntary exercise, forced exercise, and cold exposure in house mice selectively bred for high wheel-running

Abstract

Selective breeding for high wheel-running activity has generated four lines of laboratory house mice (S lines) that run about 170% more than their control counterparts (C lines) on a daily basis, mostly because they run faster. We tested whether maximum aerobic metabolic rates (V̇O2max) have evolved in concert with wheel-running, using 48 females from generation 35. Voluntary activity and metabolic rates were measured on days 5+6 of wheel access (mimicking conditions during selection), using wheels enclosed in metabolic chambers. Following this, V̇O2max was measured twice on a motorized treadmill and twice during cold-exposure in a heliox atmosphere (HeO2). Almost all measurements, except heliox V̇ O2max, were significantly repeatable. After accounting for differences in body mass (S