Data from the farmgate-to-meat continuum including omics-based biomarkers to better understand the variability of beef tenderness: An integromics approach

Mohammed Gagaoua (1) , Valérie Monteils (1) , Brigitte Picard (1)

1 UMRH - Unité Mixte de Recherche sur les Herbivores - UMR 1213

This study is based on an integromic approach of 71 young bulls’ data from farmgate-to-meat continuum including omics-based biomarkers, to understand beef tenderness variability in two muscle cuts that differ by their contractile and metabolic properties. By the means of chemometrics using partial least squares (PLS) and principal component regressions (PCR), important variables from a list of 49 that characterize 4 levels of the continuum (rearing factors – carcass – muscle – meat) were identified to explain tenderness of Longissimus thoracis (LT) and Semitendinosus (ST) muscles evaluated by sensory panel and instrumental Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF). The PLS and PCR analyses validated 16 and 15 variables for LT, and 12 and 14 for ST from the whole continuum to explain sensory tenderness and WBSF, respectively. Among the explanatory variables in the 4 models and in line with the role of apoptosis in tenderness determinism, HSP70-1A/B (a heat shock protein) was retained to explain beef tenderness irrespective of muscle and evaluation method. Similarly, dressing percentage from the carcass level was another robust predictor but in a muscle-dependent direction manner. HSP20, ENO3, MyHC-I as three muscle protein biomarkers and dry matter intake (DMI) as a rearing factor, were involved in 3 models to explain beef tenderness. This study highlighted also that several variables were muscle-specific irrespective of the evaluation method of tenderness. For LT muscle, 6 variables including 3 carcass traits (fatness score, fat carcass % and muscle carcass %), 2 muscle biomarkers (HSP70-8 and MyHC-IIx/b) and one meat quality trait (pH3h) were found. For ST muscle, 5 variables were validated from which 2 rearing factors (average daily gain and feed efficiency) and 3 structural protein biomarkers (α-actin, MyBP-H and CapZ-β). Finally, for WBSF only, lactate dehydrogenase chain B (LDH-B), was retained positively for LT and negatively for ST muscles. Overall, this trial showed that tenderness of LT and ST muscle-cuts are influenced by variables belonging to the whole continuum with relationships that depend on both the muscle type and the evaluation method. It further highlighted the potential of integromic/chemometric approaches on the farmgate-to-meat continuum data to better understand the sophisticated biological processes that orchestrate the conversion of muscle into meat and tenderness determinism.

Mots clés: Biological mechanisms; Meat tenderness; Bulls; Biomarkers; Integromics; biomarker; chemometrics

Mots clés: biomarqueur; taureau; tendrete de la viande; chimiométrie; mécanisme biologique

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Mohammed Gagaoua, Valérie Monteils, Brigitte Picard. Data from the farmgate-to-meat continuum including omics-based biomarkers to better understand the variability of beef tenderness: An integromics approach. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2018, 66 (51), ⟨10.1021/acs.jafc.8b05744⟩. ⟨hal-01950463⟩