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.