Couch Potatoes May Be Missing Exercise Gene

Researchers have found that people who find it easy to keep fit may just have been born with the right genes, and their research also means couch potatoes previously dismissed as lazy could be missing the gene and so naturally find it more difficult to exercise. Researchers removed two genes in muscle from mice and found they could not run as far as others that had them. Professor Gregory Steinberg said: “It was remarkable. The mice looked identical to their brothers or sisters but we quickly knew which had the genes and which didn’t.” The genes control an enzyme called AMPK which in turn produces mitochondria, the “power bases” of cells which take on glucose during exercise. The team found mice without the genes had lower levels of mitochondria and an impaired ability to take up glucose. “When you exercise you get more mitochondria growing in your muscle. If you don’t exercise, the number of mitochondria goes down. By removing these genes we identified the key regulator of the mitochondria is AMPK.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 2011