Allometric scaling of metabolic rate from molecules and mitochondria to cells and mammals

The fact that metabolic rate scales as the three-quarter power of body mass (M) in unicellular, as well as multicellular, organisms suggests that the same principles of biological design operate at multiple levels of organization. We use the framework of a general model of fractal-like distribution networks together with data on energy transformation in mammals to analyze and predict allometric scaling of aerobic metabolism over a remarkable 27 orders of magnitude in mass encompassing four levels of organization: individual organisms, single cells, intact mitochondria, and enzyme molecules. We show that, whereas rates of cellular metabolism in vivo scale as M(-1/4), rates for cells in culture converge to a…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 9873638
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• EV
  Eugene V. and Claire E. Thaw Charitable Trust
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council