Geneticists engineer marathon mice
Helen Pearson
Endurance animals point way to athletic enhancement.

They can run like Haile Gebrselassie, but these champions are cheats. US
scientists have genetically engineered two types of mice with exceptional
athletic stamina, raising concerns that athletes might try to use similar
strategies.

Marathon runners have far higher physical endurance than an average person
does. One reason is that their muscles have a greater capacity to generate
energy aerobically, using oxygen. This mechanism allows them to keep
producing energy for long periods of time, as opposed to anaerobic activity,
which powers short, explosive bursts, such as sprints.

Now two teams of scientists have hit upon molecules that might explain some
of this muscular staying power. Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies in San Diego, California, engineered mice to burn fat not
sugar, and Randall Johnson of the University of California, San Diego,
created mice that were less able to switch to anaerobic activity.

Full Text at Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040823/full/040823-2.html

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