Changes in Northern Elephant Seal Skeletal Muscle Following Thirty Days of Fasting and Reduced Activity

• Published in: Frontiers in Physiology
• Main Authors: Wright, Traver J., Davis, Randall W., Holser, Rachel R., Hückstädt, Luis A., Danesi, Christopher P., Porter, Craig, Widen, Steven G., Williams, Terrie M., Costa, Daniel P., Sheffield-Moore, Melinda
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
• Subjects: Physiology; Nes; Nes’; Elephant Seal; Elephant Seals
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7573231/; https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.564555

Northern elephant seals (NES, Mirounga angustirostris) undergo an annual molt during which they spend ∼40 days fasting on land with reduced activity and lose approximately one-quarter of their body mass. Reduced activity and muscle load in stereotypic terrestrial mammalian models results in decrease...