Skeletal muscle proteomics in livestock production

Abstract

Proteomics allows studying large numbers of proteins, including their post-translational modifications. Proteomics has been, and still are, used in numerous studies on skeletal muscle. In this article, we focus on its use in the study of livestock muscle development and meat quality. Changes in protein profiles during myogenesis are described in cattle, pigs and fowl using comparative analyses across different ontogenetic stages. This approach allows a better understanding of the key stages of myogenesis and helps identifying processes that are similar or divergent between species. Genetic variability of muscle properties analysed by the study of hypertrophied cattle and sheep are discussed. Biological markers of meat quality, particularly tenderness in cattle, pigs and fowl are presented, including protein modifications during meat ageing in cattle, protein markers of PSE meat in turkeys and of post-mortem muscle metabolism in pigs. Finally, we discuss the interest of proteomics as a tool to understand better biochemical mechanisms underlying the effects of stress during the pre-slaughter period on meat quality traits. In conclusion, the study of proteomics in skeletal muscles allows generating large amounts of scientific knowledge that helps to improve our understanding of myogenesis and muscle growth and to control better meat quality.

Proteomic profiling of bovine M. longissimus lumborum from Crossbred Aberdeen Angus and Belgian Blue sired steers varying in genetic merit for carcass weight1

“…Troponin T (TnT) is an important regulatory and structural component of skeletal muscle thin fi laments (Perry, 1998). Troponin T type 1 (TNNT1) and TNNI2, found in slow-and fast-twitch skeletal muscle, respectively, are involved in muscle contraction (Picard et al, 2010) and were increased in expression in AA-sired relative to BBsired steers. Sadkowski et al (2008) found that TNNT1 was a potential myostatin-dependent gene possibly explaining the differential expression in its protein product in AAsired relative to BB-sired steers.…”

Proteomic analysis of skeletal muscle at different live weights in Charolais bulls

“…These modifi cations of beta-enolase have not been reported yet in cattle protein databases. Beta-enolase is the muscle-specifi c enolase, its expression greatly increased during postnatal muscle growth because enolases are involved in energy metabolism, specifi cally in pyruvate production (PICARD et al, 2010). The increase of muscle mass is due to an increase of muscle fi bre size (TE PAS et al, 2004).…”

Molecular characterization and tissue expression profile of porcine Ephrin-B2

“…The amount of muscle fibers is determined before the swine fetus is 90-days-old, but the metabolic characteristics are determined after birth, at 30-days-old (Picard et al, 2010). Results obtained from real-time PCR analysis revealed that the EFNB2 gene is expressed in 10 tissues obtained from 25-day-old Yorkshire and Shaziling pigs.…”