Award details

Scaling of efficiency in insect flight muscle

Reference	S10246
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor John Altringham
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Charles Ellington
Institution	University of Leeds
Department	Inst of Integrative & Comparative Biolog
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	39,696
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/09/2000
End date	01/09/2001
Duration	12 months

Abstract

For all types of locomotion, overall efficiency increases with increasing body size. However, it is likely that differences in crossbridge cycling rate are far more important determinants of efficiency than in body mass, and the scaling of efficiency is probably associated with the concomitant decrease of contraction frequencies with increasing size. We propose to use scaling studies of hovering flight performance and in vitro experiments on synchronous and asynchronous insect flight muscle to separate the factors contributing to overall muscle efficiency: the activation costs associated with calcium cycling, the crossbridge efficiency, elastic energy storage, and the biochemical efficiency of ATP production. Thus we should be able to identify the main cause or causes of the scaling of locomotor efficiency. (Joint with 8/S10245).

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

Associated awards:

S10245 Scaling of efficiency in insect flight muscle

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