Abstract
Abstract. Biological processes underlie all livestock traits, including post-mortem meat quality traits. Biomarkers are molecular components of the biological processes showing differential expression associated with the phenotype of the trait. The phenotypes of the meat quality traits are determined by the animal's genotype interacting with the environment affecting the expression of the genome. The omics technologies enable measuring the expression of the genome at all levels: transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome. Associations between the phenotype of the traits and expressions measured with the omics techniques are a first step in developing biomarkers. Biomarkers enable the monitoring, diagnosis, and prediction of changes in meat quality related to external (environmental, e.g. feed and animal management conditions) stimuli and interactions with the genotype. In this paper we review the development of biomarkers for meat quality of pigs in diverse pig breeds, environments, and pork production chains.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to review results of research aiming to develop biomarkers for meat quality
Explaining a limited proportion of the variability, the authors concluded that the results showed interesting relationships between protein expression and longissimus meat quality traits
We studied the proteome changes in pig longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris muscle tissue of the same animals
Summary
The aim of this paper is to review results of research aiming to develop biomarkers for meat quality. Sensory and technological meat quality traits are intertwined and depend on the same post-mortem processes All of these quality dimensions are determined by interactions between animal genetic background, rearing, and slaughtering conditions and meat processing factors and are related to the biological processes underlying the post-mortem processes of transformation of muscle into meat. Based upon pre-existing knowledge of the relation between the biomarker and the biological processes, biomarkers can predict the outcome of the post-mortem processes – and predict the final meat quality before it has fully developed, or even before slaughter This opens the potential to manage the final meat quality and the (global) meat quality in the chain, e.g. select carcasses or cuts for specific uses such as dry-cured ham or sausage production according to their intrinsic characteristics and potential quality value, and thereby improve added value for the pork industry. In the discussion we will integrate the knowledge and discuss the possibilities for (commercial) use of the biomarkers
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