MUSCLE BIOMARKERS TO DISCRIMINATE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAT

• Grant number: 23/16127-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: May 27, 2024
• End date: November 26, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry
• Principal Investigator: Luis Artur Loyola Chardulo
• Grantee: Juliana Akamine Torrecilhas
• Supervisor: Christina Ramires Ferreira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Purdue University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/10240-8 - EFFECTS OF GROWTH RATE ON CARCASS AND MEAT QUALITY TRAITS OF NELLORE CATTLE SUBMITTED TO EARLY-WEANING: AN OMICS APPROACH, BP.PD

Abstract

Over the years, consumer demand for beef quality has increased, and naturally, the pursuit of continuous improvement has similarly intensified along the same trajectory. Thus, numerous technologies have been suggested in recent years to boost productivity and quality. Technics such as Lipid exploratory analysis are commonly performed using liquid chromatography. However, these methods give limited lipid structural information, typically only information on the general lipid class or fatty acyl residues. Advances in instrumentation and ionization methodologies in mass spectrometry (MS) allow FAs and glycerophospholipids to be detected as intact ionized molecules. MS can therefore be used to study the lipid composition of a broad range of samples of the complex composition containing limited amounts of lipids. In this context, the objective is to help adapt the MasSpec pen method to evaluate the global lipid profile of skeletal muscle and beef from Nelore cattle. In addition, identify a panel of molecular biomarkers based on muscle lipid composition of Nellore cattle submitted to early weaning or not, using this technology (MasSpec Pen) and compare it with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM profiling) data, which allows for discriminating beef quality characteristics. Forty biopsy samples of animals from two periods (210 days and slaughter) of the project (2022/10240-8) will be used: 20 animals from the early weaning treatment (120 days) and 20 animals from the conventional weaning treatment. In addition, these techniques will be used to understand other projects with meat quality that are under development in the research group such as i.e., "How high and low marbling contribute to tenderness of meat during the postmortem process".