Changes in Color Stability of Beef during Postmortem Cold Storage and Underlying Mechanism

In order to study the color stability and change mechanism of beef during postmortem storage, quantitative proteomic analysis was carried out on bovine Longissimus dorsi with high and low color stability at 75 min, 2 days and 8 days after slaughter. Proteomic results showed that a total of 1377 proteins were identified in the high and low color stability groups, including 136 differential proteins. Bioinformatics analysis found that the differential proteins were mainly involved in postmortem biochemical processes such as redox, glucose metabolism, signal transduction and apoptosis, which were closely related to the regulation of meat color stability during postmortem storage. By functional analysis of these differential proteins, four key differential proteins related to the respiratory electron transport chain were selected, namely, cytochrome complex subunit (UQCR10), cytochrome C oxidase subunit Ⅶa peptide 1 (COX7A1), mitochondrial ATP synthase subunit (ATP5MG), and mitochondrial ATP synthase subunit (ATP5MF). These proteins participated in the postmortem energy metabolism and redox processes and affected oxidoreductase activity, which in turn affected the color stability of beef during storage. This study provides an idea for the regulation of meat color stability in the future.