Proteomic characterization and carcass and meat quality of Montana Tropical Composite®

• Grant number: 19/11501-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2020
• End date: September 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Joanir Pereira Eler
• Grantee: Joanir Pereira Eler
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alessandra Fernandes Rosa ; José Bento Sterman Ferraz ; Mirele Daiana Poleti ; Rafael Espigolan

Abstract

An alternative to increase productivity in beef cattle is use composite beef cattle formed from the combination of racial groups or different biological types, aiming at the maximum maintenance of heterosis. The processes that involve the genetic evaluations, result in animals with high genetic merit and efficiency, in addition to promoting the use of heterosis, which can contribute to the technical and environmental challenges of Brazilian livestock. Nowadays, the use of genomic selection has been shown to be more advantageous in the evaluation of difficult-to-measure economic interest characteristics such as carcass quality, meat quality and food efficiency. In this context, proteomics also appears as a tool with great potential for complementation of genomic studies, representing a link between genes and their products. Thus, the main objective of this project is to evaluate the carcass and meat quality characteristics of Montana Tropical® Composite beef cattle population, complementing the traditional analyzes with proteomic approach, as well as searching for meat quality markers using the technique by Western Blotting. To do so, we will evaluate 250 non-castrated male animals, finished in confinement. At the end of the confinement period, the animals will be sent to a commercial slaughterhouse where the carcass and quality evaluations will be carried out and samples of the Longissimus thoracis muscle will be collected for meat quality (pH, color and tenderness) and proteomics evaluations. For the proteomic analyzes, qualitative and quantitative experiments will be performed to characterize the muscle proteome as a function of carcass quality and meat tenderness in addition to the Wester Blotting technique for the search and validation of biomarkers for meat quality. (AU)