94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Livestock Genomics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1501177
Transcriptome and HS-SPME-GC-MS analysis of key genes and flavor components associated with beef marbling
Provisionally accepted
Yanling Ding
Yanfeng ZhangXiaonan ZhouChenglong LiZonghua SuJunjie XuChang Qu
Yuangang Shi
Xiaolong Kang*- Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Wagyu cattle are well-known for their rich marbling. Qinchuan cattle have slower-depositing marbling than Wagyu cattle. However, because of an increase in the consumer demand for high-quality beef and the increasingly stringent standards of beef quality, improving the marbling grade of Qinchuan cattle has become particularly crucial. Therefore, we here considered castrated crossbred Wagyu cattle (crossed with Qinchuan cattle) as the research subjects. Flavor substances in the longissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) of A1 and A5 grades were detected through headspace-solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and electronic nose (E-nose) analysis. Fat deposition-regulating functional genes in both groups were identified through RNA sequencing (RNAseq) and Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). The results showed that the intramuscular fat (IMF) was significantly higher in A5-grade beef (32.96 ± 1.88) than in A1-grade beef (10.91 ± 1.07) (P <0.01). In total, 41 and 39 flavor compounds were detected in A1 and A5 grade beef, respectively. Seven aroma compounds were identified base on odor activity values (OAVs) ≥ 1, namely decanal, hexanal, nonanal, heptanol, 1-octen-3-ol, pentanol, and hexanoic acid-methyl ester. Additionally, FABP4, PLIN1, LIPE, ACACA, and CIDEA were the key genes primarily involved in cholesterol metabolism, sterol metabolism, and the PPAR signaling pathway in the two grades of beef. This study attempted to offer comprehensive information on marbling formation-associated candidate genes and gene-enriched pathways, which provides data for future research in beef cattle breeding and beef quality improvement.
Keywords: crossbred Wagyu cattle, beef grade, Flavor components, Marbling, Transcriptome
Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 09 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ding, Zhang, Zhou, Li, Su, Xu, Qu, Shi and Kang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaolong Kang, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.