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The Terroir Concept Interpreted through Grape Berry Metabolomics and Transcriptomics
Published on: October 5, 2016
Molecular insights into quality differences of geographical indication lamb via widely targeted metabolomics and
Chongxin Liu1, Minghui Gu2, Simona Grasso3
1College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China; Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Quality and Safety Control in Storage and Transport Process, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100193, China; School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Abstract:
This study investigated the differences in meat quality, mineral composition and metabolomics between Kazakh and Lop sheep raised on grasslands and saline-alkali soils in Xinjiang. Significant variations were observed in protein content and shear force, as well as in the mineral content of potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, zinc and selenium. Metabolomic profiling revealed 250 metabolites with differential abundance. Among these, 41 key biomarkers were identified and validated using BorutaShap and ensemble learning, which effectively discriminated between Kazakh and Lop lamb samples. Pathway analysis highlighted glucose/galactose metabolism, amino acid metabolism, purine metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and tricarboxylic acid cycling. Histidine metabolism was found to be closely linked to protein content and tenderness. Further correlation analysis suggested that Gly-Tyr, Tyr-Gly and Ala-Arg could be potential tenderness indicators. These findings clarify the metabolic basis of quality differences between geographical indication breeds in different ecological environments, providing methodological insights into identifying molecular markers of lamb quality.
