Comparison of protein differences between high- and low-quality goat and bovine parts based on iTRAQ technology

This study was designed to investigate the differences in the proteomes of high- and low-quality goat and bovine muscles. In total, 364 and 111 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified in the high-quality/low-quality bovine and goat samples, respectively. The bioinformatic analysis demonstrated that DEPs are involved in glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle) and oxidative phosphorylation. An analysis of quality-related DEPs showed that nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase (NADH) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) could be potential biomarkers for colour, while enolase (ENO) can be used as a marker protein for tenderness qualities in goat. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and 14-3-3 protein can indicate goat and bovine tenderness, while heat-shock proteins (HSPs) can also be used as tenderness marker proteins for different species. Glycerin-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) can be used as a protein to detect fat content, and guanine ribonucleotide-binding protein (G protein) may be a flavour marker protein in bovine meat.