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

- Diet supplementation affected the tenderness of lamb meat.
- Meat from lambs fed linseed showed the lowest values of texture parameters.
- Western blot revealed a degradation of desmin and TnT in meat from linseed group.
- Meat from quinoa group showed more spots ascribed to sarcoplasmic proteins and fMHC.
- Linseed group showed a major number and intensity of MLC2 isoforms.

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.