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Related Concept Videos

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The human body is a powerhouse of energy, with every cell performing numerous functions that require energy. This energy production and consumption is measured by the metabolic rate, which quantifies the total heat generated by all the body's chemical reactions and mechanical work. This measurement helps to determine the rate of kilocalorie (kcal) consumption needed to fuel all ongoing activities.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Determining Basal Energy Expenditure and the Capacity of Thermogenic Adipocytes to Expend Energy in Obese Mice
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EVOLUTION OF BASAL METABOLIC RATE AND ORGAN MASSES IN LABORATORY MICE.

Marek Konarzewski1, Jared Diamond1

  • 1Physiology Department, University of California Medical School, Los Angeles, California, 90024-1751.

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|June 2, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Differences in organ size explain much of the variation in basal metabolic rate (BMR) among mice. Larger, more metabolically active organs contribute to higher BMR, influencing evolutionary trade-offs.

Keywords:
Artificial selectionbasal metabolic rateenergeticsenergy budgetevolutionary trade-offsheartinbred mouse strainsintestinekidneyliverorgan masses

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary physiology
  • Comparative genomics
  • Metabolic research

Background:

  • Basal metabolic rate (BMR) varies significantly across animal species of similar body mass.
  • Understanding the evolutionary origins and functional significance of this variation is a key challenge.
  • Hypotheses suggest adaptive evolution driven by differences in the relative sizes of metabolically active organs.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the intraspecific correlation between body-mass-corrected BMR and the masses of key organs (heart, kidney, liver, small intestine).
  • To minimize confounding phenotypic effects and maximize genetic variation by using inbred mouse strains.
  • To determine the contribution of organ masses to BMR variation.

Main Methods:

  • Studied six inbred strains of mice to assess BMR and organ masses.
  • Analyzed correlations between body-mass-corrected BMR and the masses of the heart, kidney, liver, and small intestine.
  • Utilized published data on metabolic rates of tissue slices for validation.

Main Results:

  • Significant inter-strain differences were observed in BMR and all four organ masses.
  • Mice with higher BMR had disproportionately larger organs, and vice versa.
  • Organ masses accounted for 52% of the observed BMR variation (42% between strains, 10% within strains).
  • Correlations between BMR and liver/kidney mass were found both between and within strains, while heart/intestine mass correlations were only between strains.

Conclusions:

  • Even though the four studied organs constitute a small fraction of total body mass, their metabolic activity significantly drives BMR variation.
  • Large masses of metabolically active organs present evolutionary trade-offs: enabling high-energy budgets but incurring high maintenance costs.
  • These findings support the hypothesis that organ size variation is an adaptively evolved trait influencing BMR.