This article is available online at http://www.jlr.orgTo combat the rise in obesity and metabolic diseases, a large number of studies have attempted to defi ne the etiology of impaired glucose metabolism, dyslipidemia, and lipodystrophy ( 1-5 ). The results of these studies have generally shown that development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is dependent on a multitude of factors, including obesity due to overnutrition combined with physical inactivity; consumption of a high-fat/high-carbohydrate diet; and genetic predisposition ( 6-9 ). There have also been a number of studies designed to establish effective treatments and/or defi ne drug targets to prolong the prediabetic state or to reduce the severity of established T2DM in which a wide range of potential targets have been identifi ed. Despite the heterogeneity of causative factors leading to T2DM, there has been nearly unanimous agreement that impaired insulin signaling, increased intramuscular lipid deposition, and a loss of metabolic fl exibility in skeletal muscle is critical for development of the disease ( 10, 11 ).The current study was intended to defi ne the role of a key lipogenic enzyme, stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1), in regulating skeletal muscle lipid metabolism and how its overexpression can actually promote fat oxidation, exercise capacity, and glucose tolerance by increasing triglyceride synthesis. SCD1 is an integral membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum that catalyzes the desaturation of long-chain saturated fatty acids (SFA) into monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). The enzyme is expressed in nearly all tissues of humans and mice where it converts primarily stearate (18:0) into oleate (18:1) and, to a lesser Abstract Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD)1 converts saturated fatty acids into monounsaturated fatty acids. Using muscle overexpression, we sought to determine the role of SCD1 expression in glucose and lipid metabolism and its effects on exercise capacity in mice. Wild-type C57Bl/6 (WT) and SCD1 muscle transgenic (SCD1-Tg) mice were generated, and expression of the SCD1 transgene was restricted to skeletal muscle. SCD1 overexpression was associated with increased triglyceride (TG) content. The fatty acid composition of the muscle revealed a signifi cant increase in polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content of TG, including linoleate (18:2n6). Untrained SCD1-Tg mice also displayed significantly increased treadmill exercise capacity (WT = 6.6 ± 3 min, Tg = 71.9 ± 9.5 min; P = 0.0009). SCD1-Tg mice had decreased fasting plasma glucose, glucose transporter (GLUT )1 mRNA, fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial content, and increased peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) ␦ and Pgc-1 protein expression in skeletal muscle. In vitro studies in C2C12 myocytes revealed that linoleate (18:2n6) and not oleate (18:1n9) caused a 3-fold increase in PPAR ␦ and a 9-fold increase in CPT-1b with a subsequent increase in fat oxidation. The present model suggests that increasing delta-9 desaturase activity of muscle increases metabolic f...