Effects of starvation on protein synthesis and nucleic acid metabolism in the muscle of the barred sand bass Paralabrax nebulifer

Starvation induced different protein synthesis responses in red and white muscle of the barred sand bass Paralabrax nebulifer. Red muscle had 14C-leucine incorporation rates into total protein which were several times higher than white muscle in both the fed and starved states. Muscle was separated into a myofibrillar fraction consisting of the structural proteins and a sarcoplasmic fraction consisting of soluble proteins. Synthesis of the myofibrillar fraction of white muscle decreased by 90%, while red muscle myofibrillar synthesis remained essentially unchanged. Changes in the labeling of several enzymes purified from the sarcoplasmic fraction were different even though the overall loss of enzyme activity was similar, suggesting that changes in synthesis rates were important in maintaining appropriate relative enzyme concentrations