Psoas major muscle (PMM) is different from longissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) and semimembranosus (SM) and is a representative red muscle in pig's carcass. However, scarce researches focus on the mechanism of pork quality of PMM, especially by multi-omics analysis. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the meat quality differences between PMM and LDM, SM in Chinese indigenous Saba pigs, integrating physicochemical characteristics, transcriptomics, and proteomics analyses. The results showed that PMM had appropriately lower fat content, better amino acid (AA) compositions, and greater tenderness compared to LDM and SM. Totals of 2,320 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 1,562 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified, of which 22 DEGs/DEPs were co-expression in both PMM vs. LDM and PMM vs. SM groups at the two-omics levels. Some identified AAs and lipids metabolism-related pathways played a crucial role in the meat quality differences among muscles from different parts. Ten genes, including ACADM, ETFB, MYL3, COX5A, CS, HADH, DLD, NDUFS8, NDUFS3, and NDUFAB1 were identified as potential key genes specific to the regulation of synthesis and metabolism of AAs and lipids in skeletal muscle. These findings provide holistic insights into the molecular mechanisms of pork quality, and serve as beneficial foundation for the genetic improvement of pork quality and pork grading.
Yang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.