Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) is a regulatory factor of nuclear genes for respiratory subunits and for components of the mitochondrial transcription and replication machinery. This study investigated the effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on the postexercise expression of mRNA for NRF-1 and RNA moiety of endonuclease for mitochondrial RNA processing (MRP-RNA) in soleus muscle of 5 days-trained and untrained rats. In the trained group, rats were run on a motor-driven treadmill at a speed of 25 m/min for 90 min/day for 5 days. On the final day, rats were run by the same procedures and were sacrificed at various postexercise time points (0.5, 3, 6, and 24 h). The basal level of cytochrome oxidase activity was increased by the training, which was associated with the increase in the expression of mRNAs for subunit VIc and III of the enzyme. The NRF-1 mRNA expression was transiently increased by approximately 35% at the time point of 6 h after exercise, although the basal level of the expression was not altered by training. A similar transient increase (approximately 50%) in NRF-1 expression by the acute bout of exercise was also observed in untrained rats. In contrast to the NRF-1 expression, the basal level of MRP-RNA abundance was not altered by 5 days training and was not affected by the single exercise bout in either 5 days-trained or untrained rats. These results suggest that the postexercise increase in NRF-1 mRNA expression in rat skeletal muscle may be an early response to endurance exercise for an enhancement of the mitochondrial oxidative capacity.