is an important metabolic sensor/effector that coordinates many of the changes in mammalian tissues during variations in energy availability. We have sought to create an in vivo genetic model of chronic AMPK activation, selecting murine skeletal muscle as a representative tissue where AMPK plays important roles. Muscleselective expression of a mutant noncatalytic ␥1 subunit (R70Q␥) of AMPK activates AMPK and increases muscle glycogen content. The increase in glycogen content requires the presence of the endogenous AMPK catalytic ␣-subunit, since the offspring of cross-breeding of these mice with mice expressing a dominant negative AMPK␣ subunit have normal glycogen content. In R70Q␥1-expressing mice, there is a small, but significant, increase in muscle glycogen synthase (GSY) activity associated with an increase in the muscle expression of the liver isoform GSY2. The increase in glycogen content is accompanied, as might be expected, by an increase in exercise capacity. Transgene expression of this mutant AMPK␥1 subunit may provide a useful model for the chronic activation of AMPK in other tissues to clarify its multiple roles in the regulation of metabolism and other physiological processes. glycogen synthase; exercise; transgenic mice THE AMP-ACTIVATED PROTEIN KINASE (AMPK) is an important sensor/effector that coordinates many of the changes in mammalian tissues during variations in energy availability (24,26,27). Upon allosteric stimulation by AMP and activation by AMPKKs, AMPK acts to phosphorylate several proteins that increase the rates of glucose and fatty acid metabolism to correct the deficit in ATP that occurs during metabolic stresses. AMPK is a heterotrimeric protein, consisting of an ␣-catalytic subunit, a -subunit important both for enzyme activity and targeting, and a ␥-subunit, which binds the activating AMP. Activity requires phosphorylation of the ␣-subunit on Thr 172 by one or more AMPKKs (24,26,27,33).To exploit the possibility that a mutation in a ␥-subunit might create a model of chronic AMPK activation and, reasoning that the ␥1 subunit was the most widely expressed ␥-subunit, we previously examined the impact of a mutation in the ␥1 subunit (R70Q␥1) on AMPK activity in cell-based systems (18). Three AMPK ␥-subunits (␥1, ␥2, ␥3), are coded by three separate genes, ␥1 being the most ubiquitously expressed, whereas ␥2 and ␥3 have more restricted expression (8,24,26,27). The ␥-subunits bind AMP, activating the heterotrimer; however, mutations in the AMP binding pocket of ␥1 can create an activated heterotrimer that is relatively independent of allosteric regulation by AMP (1, 18). Naturally occurring mutations in ␥2 and ␥3 are now well recognized, the former contributing to the arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (2). The Hampshire pig (Sus scrofa domesticus; RN Ϫ ) is an interesting model of the impact of a ␥3 subunit mutation (R200Q) in skeletal muscle, leading to marked glycogen accumulation (11,12,29). This phenotype has been replicated in a murine model ...