Glycolytic enzyme activity in developing red and white muscle.

Abstract

AbstractThe activities of the constant proportion enzymes of the Embden‐Meyerhof chain (triose phosphate isomerase (TIM), glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK), phosphoglycerate mutase (PGM) and enolase (ENOL)), and the activity of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were studied in developing red (trapezius) and white (longissimus) muscles of the pig from a fetal stage to 24 weeks postnatal. Both muscles were differentiated by two weeks postnatal in the sense that they had reached the adult level of enzyme activity. Enzyme activities were two‐ to three‐fold greater in the longissimus than in the trapezius. Enzyme activity ratios based on GAPDH were not consistent in the fetal and day 1 samples but were consistent during later stages of growth. Ratios of enzyme activity based on activity at 105 days gestation revealed that TIM, PGK and PGM are grouped and follow the same pattern, but GAPDH and ENOL are quite different from each other and from the pattern shown by TIM, PGK and PGM. The constant proportion concept in developing muscle is therefore questioned.