Quantitative phosphoproteomic approach to unveil potential protein biomarkers linked to high meat quality in ducks

Thus far, potential biomarkers for assessing the quality of duck meat remain poorly characterized. However, with the advancement of omics technologies, protein post-translational modifications have been discovered as potential biomarkers of meat quality. In this study, high-quality (HQ) and normal-quality (NQ) meats were investigated from 65-day-old Liancheng White ducks and 37-day-old Cherry Valley ducks, and quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis was performed. The HQ duck meat was tender and mainly had a high content of intramuscular fat and protein. Moreover, A total of 1594 phosphopeptides corresponding to 892 phosphoproteins were identified, of which 170 up-regulated and 100 down-regulated phosphopeptides in HQ meat by quantitative phosphoproteomic. The majority of these differentially phosphorylated proteins were involved in carbohydrate metabolism, muscle fibers, and tight/adherens junctions, especially glycolytic enzymes. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and phosphoglucomutase 1 may serve as potential candidate biomarkers for intramuscular fat content and tenderness in ducks, respectively. These data provide a phosphoproteomic perspective for biomarkers linked to high meat quality. This study provides a new strategy to improve the quality of duck meat.