The health benefits of daily exercise seem to be very well defined. Yet it’s clear from current research that we still don’t have a complete understanding of how the human body positively adapts to exercise. This talk by Prof David James offers an insight into the complex nature of the interactions between exercise and human biology.

Title: Systems analysis of Exercise Biology

Speaker: Prof. David James, The University of Sydney, Australia

Date: 22/04/20

Abstract Defining cellular responses to acute perturbations is of central interest in biology. We have exploited altered protein phosphorylation as a key response output as it is rapid, dynamic and quantifiable on a global scale. In light of our main interest in metabolism we have focused on the phosphoproteome of one of the core metabolic tissues skeletal muscle and how it responds to major metabolic perturbations such as exercise and insulin. We have identified a vast array of phosphorylation changes in both cases. Surprisingly the majority of these phosphorylation events can neither be functionally accounted for nor ascribed to an upstream kinase. Thus, we refer to these as the ‘dark phosphoproteome’. By focusing on known core regulators of exercise and insulin, such as AMPK and Akt, we have defined novel features and substrates of these regulatory nodes. This has provided new insights into insulin and exercise action and offers a wealth of opportunities for future investigations. Our novel investigations of the exercise regulated phosphoproteome and how it can help us understand the health benefits of exercise will be described.