Proteomic approach to investigate the impact of different dietary supplementation on lamb meat tenderness.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of linseed and/or quinoa on tenderness and on proteome of lamb meat. Thirty-two Italian Merino lambs were distributed into 4 groups with different diet: control (CO) with no supplemental fat, linseed (LS), quinoa (QS) and QS+LS diets. Meat obtained by lamb fed linseed showed the lowest values of WBSF (P<0.001), hardness (P<0.01), gumminess (P<0.01) and chewiness (P<0.01). Proteomic changes of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins were estimated with SDS-PAGE, Western Blot and Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis. In linseed group proteomic analysis revealed a degradation of desmin and TnT proteins complex and a major number of spots and phosphorylation isoforms of fast MLC2 patterns. Meat obtained by lamb fed quinoa showed a minor effect on the instrumental evaluation of meat tenderness and a major number of spots ascribed to sarcoplasmic proteins and fMHC. Data suggest that dietary supplementation may act on meat tenderness and on proteolytic pattern of myofibrillar fraction.