Proteomic and bioinformatic analysis of proteins on cooking loss in yak longissimus thoracis

Abstract

It is a challenging task for the meat industry to search for potential predictors of water-holding capacity (WHC) in meat. Based on the data obtained from cooking loss, longissimus thoracis (LT) of yak can be classified into low cooking loss (LCL) and high cooking loss (HCL) groups. Twenty-six proteins were found to be differentially abundant in the LCL and HCL groups. Results showed that cooking loss can be attributed to structural proteins, metabolic enzymes, stress-related proteins and transport protein. The expression level of desmin, troponin T and l-lactate dehydrogenase increased greatly in the HCL group. We then used western blot and hydrophobicity analysis to validate the representative proteins. Furthermore, prediction of protein subcellular localization revealed that the differentially abundant proteins were mostly positioned in the cytoplasm, nucleus and mitochondria. Accordingly, proteomic and bioinformatic analysis have proven excellent tools to quantify the changes of proteins linked to cooking loss, with which we can explain the processes behind WHC in yak muscle.