High-throughput mitochondrial aerobic metabolism measurement: assessing a plate-reader approach using avian blood cells
4 affiliations
- 1Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, Seerose 1, CH-6206, Switzerland
- 2Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
- 3Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
- 4Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, FI-20014, Finland
Abstract
Mitochondria power biological processes, driving interest in measuring mitochondrial aerobic metabolism to understand individual variation in performance and fitness. High-resolution respirometry (HRR) is the gold standard because of its sensitivity and versatility, but it is time-consuming and has low throughput, limiting its use in large-scale studies. We assessed the validity of a high-throughput, fluorescence-based plate reader by comparing it to HRR. In a first experiment, we measured mitochondrial respiration in blood cells from two bird species (quails and chickens) across three temperatures (hypothermia, normothermia, and hyperthermia). The two methods were moderately correlated and revealed similar species effects; however, temperature effects differed between approaches, particularly under hyperthermic conditions, indicating that the plate-reader approach is best suited for stable, normothermic conditions. In a second experiment on sex differences in quails at normothermia, the two methods agreed quantitatively for proton leak and oxidative control efficiency and qualitatively for oxidative phosphorylation, although the plate-reader estimate was marginally significant (P=0.060 versus P=0.046 for HRR). The plate reader's main limitation is its lower sensitivity and greater measurement error, which could be offset by increasing sample sizes. Following protocol optimisation for each study system, this approach may offer a useful high-throughput complement to HRR for studies prioritising larger sample sizes.
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BibTeX
@article{hadjadji2026highthroughput,
title = {{High-throughput mitochondrial aerobic metabolism measurement: assessing a plate-reader approach using avian blood cells}},
author = {Cloe Hadjadji and Molly Ohse and Antoine Stier and Pierre Bize},
journal = {Biology Open},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1242/bio.062712},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.062712},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - High-throughput mitochondrial aerobic metabolism measurement: assessing a plate-reader approach using avian blood cells
AU - Cloe Hadjadji
AU - Molly Ohse
AU - Antoine Stier
AU - Pierre Bize
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
JO - Biology Open
DO - 10.1242/bio.062712
UR - https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.062712
AB - Mitochondria power biological processes, driving interest in measuring mitochondrial aerobic metabolism to understand individual variation in performance and fitness. High-resolution respirometry (HRR) is the gold standard because of its sensitivity and versatility, but it is time-consuming and has low throughput, limiting its use in large-scale studies. We assessed the validity of a high-throughput, fluorescence-based plate reader by comparing it to HRR. In a first experiment, we measured mitochondrial respiration in blood cells from two bird species (quails and chickens) across three temperatures (hypothermia, normothermia, and hyperthermia). The two methods were moderately correlated and revealed similar species effects; however, temperature effects differed between approaches, particularly under hyperthermic conditions, indicating that the plate-reader approach is best suited for stable, normothermic conditions. In a second experiment on sex differences in quails at normothermia, the two methods agreed quantitatively for proton leak and oxidative control efficiency and qualitatively for oxidative phosphorylation, although the plate-reader estimate was marginally significant (P=0.060 versus P=0.046 for HRR). The plate reader's main limitation is its lower sensitivity and greater measurement error, which could be offset by increasing sample sizes. Following protocol optimisation for each study system, this approach may offer a useful high-throughput complement to HRR for studies prioritising larger sample sizes.
SN - 2046-6390
ER -