Patterns of energy allocation during energetic scarcity; evolutionary insights from ultra-endurance events

• Published in: Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology Molecular & integrative physiology, 2023-07, Vol.281, p.111422-111422, Article 111422
• Main Authors: Longman, Daniel P., Dolan, Eimear, Wells, Jonathan C.K., Stock, Jay T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: biochemistry; Biological Evolution; cognition; Energetics; energy; Energy Metabolism; Evolution; exercise; Exercise - physiology; Humans; Life history theory; Physical Endurance; physiological response; species; sports; Sports science; Trade-offs
• ISSN: 1095-6433; 1531-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2023.111422

Exercise physiologists and evolutionary biologists share a research interest in determining patterns of energy allocation during times of acute or chronic energetic scarcity. Within sport and exercise science, this information has important implications for athlete health and performance. For evolutionary biologists, this would shed new light on our adaptive capabilities as a phenotypically plastic species. In recent years, evolutionary biologists have begun recruiting athletes as study participants and using contemporary sports as a model for studying evolution. This approach, known as human athletic palaeobiology, has identified ultra-endurance events as a valuable experimental model to investigate patterns of energy allocation during conditions of elevated energy demand, which are generally accompanied by an energy deficit. This energetic stress provokes detectable functional trade-offs in energy allocation between physiological processes. Early results from this modelsuggest thatlimited resources are preferentially allocated to processes which could be considered to confer the greatest immediate survival advantage (including immune and cognitive function). This aligns with evolutionary perspectives regarding energetic trade-offs during periods of acute and chronic energetic scarcity. Here, we discuss energy allocation patterns during periods of energetic stress as an area of shared interest between exercise physiology and evolutionary biology. We propose that, by addressing the ultimate “why” questions, namely why certain traits were selected for during the human evolutionary journey, an evolutionary perspective can complement the exercise physiology literature and provide a deeper insight of the reasons underpinning the body's physiological response to conditions of energetic stress. •Evolutionary biologists have recently begun to use ultra-endurance events to study mechanisms of adaptation to energetic scarcity.•Life history theory, a branch of evolutionary theory, describes the competitive allocation of finite energy between physiological processes.•Early results suggest that limited resources are preferentially allocated to processes conferring the greatest immediate survival advantage.•The investigation of energy allocation is also of fundamental importance within the field of sport and exercise science.•Here, we propose that an evolutionary perspective can complement the exercise physiology literature and provide a deeper mechanistic insight of t