Proteome analysis applied to meat science: Characterizing post mortem changes in porcine muscle

The aim of this work was to test the application of two-dimensional electro phoresis (2DE)-based proteome analysis in studying muscle tissues and meat of pork, and to use this technology to characterize as many of the changes that occur in pig muscle proteins during post mortem storage of the carcass as possible. For this purpose, 2DE proved to be a powerful tool, as it is far more sensitive and shows a higher resolving power than conventional SDS -PAGE, allowing for the precise and semiquantitative recognition of approxi mately 1000 individual muscle proteins in every 2DE display. In this study, we have chosen to analyze the subset of muscle proteins that have molecula r masses of 5-200 kDa, and can be reproducibly separated in the pH span of 4-9. By comparing 2DE patterns of muscle samples taken immediately after sl aughter (time 0), as well as those taken 4, 8, 24, and 48 h post mortem, we have estimated the relative changes of individual muscle proteins during t he post mortem storage of the carcass. In this paper, of these changes we r eport the 15 most notable.