Mapping of alkaline proteins in bovine skeletal muscle

In agricultural sciences, proteomics has become the new hope for analyzing the meat quality traits that are closely related to the skeletal muscle traits. 2-DE muscle maps of many species have been recently reported and used to find molecular markers of meat quality traits. However, one limitation of 2-DE based analyses is due to the limited alkaline protein separation. Considering this problem, there is a need to use recent advances that have markedly improved the 2-DE based analysis of alkaline proteins. Hence, the present study provides additional information concerning the alkaline proteome of bovine skeletal muscle by using an appropriate protocol to characterize proteins over the entire range of pH 7-11. A total of 32 distinct gene products corresponding to 60 protein spots were identified by PMF and grouped in seven categories according to their main function. This 2-D map will contribute to muscle proteome studies since a significant portion of proteins is in the alkaline pH range.