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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #414600
Research Project: Assessment of Quality Attributes of Poultry Products, Grain, Seed, Nuts, and Feed

Location: Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit

Title: Multi-omics analyses on chicken meat quality and spaghetti meat

Author
item Kong, Byungwhi
item Bowker, Brian

Submitted to: Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/23/2024
Publication Date: 7/15/2024
Citation: Kong, B.C., Bowker, B.C. 2024. Multi-omics analyses on chicken meat quality and spaghetti meat. Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract. No. 592S: 267.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Spaghetti meat (SM) is an emerging chicken breast myopathy characterized by distinctive macroscopic features displaying impaired integrity and a stringy, soft consistency on the ventral-cranial portion of the muscle. While SM shares histological similarities with white striping and woody breast myopathies, SM uniquely exhibits a progressive rarefaction of the endomysium and perimysium, along with the deposition of loose, immature connective tissue surrounding thin and split fibers. These changes of connective tissue may contribute to the impaired muscle integrity. SM showed reduced functionality traits such as water-holding capacity and emulsifying properties. To date, several studies reported muscle quality traits associated with muscle integrity and functional properties and only a few omics studies have been published. A recent transcriptomics study showed SM showed high degree of similarity in differentially expressed gene profiles with woody breast samples, suggesting that these conditions may share common etiological mechanisms associated with extracellular environment and immune response. To understand genetic susceptibility and biochemical alterations occurring in SM, our research group conducted multi-omics analyses including a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) assay for proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics and an RNA sequencing-based genotyping. As results, differentially abundant proteins, lipids, and metabolites in SM indicated increased nonsense mediated decay activities, decreased glucose metabolism, decreased NAD+, decreased lactic acid, and increased triglycerides. From genotyping analysis, hundreds of SNPs were identified within mRNA transcripts. A metabolomics study with SM 24 h postmortem conducted in our group indicated changes in metabolite contents associated with meat quality traits during the cold storage condition. Results from these studies provide insights into potential genetic, transcriptional, and biochemical alterations that may be associated with susceptibilities of SM conditions in chicken breast meat.