Metabolic suppression is the regulated and reversible reduction of metabolic rate below basal metabolic rate (called standard metabolic rate in ectothermic animals). This reduces the fishs rate of ATP use, which prolongs its survival time at severely hypoxic sub-P P</sub>s by reducing the rate at which the fishs finite anaerobic fuel stores (glycogen) are used. Metabolic suppression also reduces the accumulation rate of deleterious anaerobic end-products (lactate and protons), which delays their negative impact on the fish.
The mechanisms that fish use to suppress metabolic rate occur at behavioral, physiological and biochemical levels. Behaviorally, metabolic rate can be lowered through reduced locomotion, feeding, courtship, and mating. Physiologically, metabolic rate can be lowered through reduced growth, digestion, gonad development, and ventilation efforts. And biochemically, metabolic rate can be further lowered below standard metabolic rate through reduced gluconeogenesis, protein synthesis and degradation rates, and ion pumping across cellular membranes. Reductions in these processes lower ATP use rates, but it remains unclear whether metabolic suppression is induced through an initial reduction in ATP use or ATP supply.
The prevalence of metabolic suppression use among fish species has not been thoroughly explored. This is partly because the metabolic rates of hypoxia-exposed fish, including suppressed metabolic rates, can only be accurately measured using direct calorimetry, and this technique is seldom used for fish. The few studies that have used calorimetry reveal that some fish species employ metabolic suppression in hypoxia/anoxia (e.g., goldfish, tilapia, European eel) while others do not (e.g. rainbow trout, zebrafish). The species that employ metabolic suppression are more hypoxia-tolerant than the species that do not, which suggests that metabolic suppression enhances hypoxia tolerance. Consistent with this, differences in hypoxia tolerance among isolated threespine stickleback populations appear to result from differences in the use of metabolic suppression, with the more tolerant stickleback using metabolic suppression.
Fish that are capable of hypoxia-induced metabolic suppression reduce their metabolic rates by 30% to 80% relative to standard metabolic rates. Because this is not a complete cessation of metabolic rate, metabolic suppression can only prolong hypoxic survival, not sustain it indefinitely. If the hypoxic exposure lasts sufficiently long, the fish will succumb to a depletion of its glycogen stores and/or the over-accumulation of deleterious anaerobic end-products. Furthermore, the severely limited energetic scope that comes with a metabolically suppressed state means that the fish is unable to complete critical tasks such a predator avoidance and reproduction. Perhaps for these reasons, goldfish prioritize their use of aerobic metabolism in most hypoxic environments, reserving metabolic suppression for the extreme case of anoxia.