Muscle characteristics comparison and targeted metabolome analysis reveal differences in carcass traits and meat quality of three pig breeds

This study investigated the molecular basis for differences in meat yield and quality between Duroc, Taoyuan black (TB), and Xiangcun black (XB) pigs. The results show that TB pigs have lower carcass weight, lean percentage, pH decline, and glycolytic potential but have higher fat percentage, water- holding capacity, intramuscular fat content, antioxidant capacity, and percentage of slow-twitch fibers than the Duroc pigs. Moreover, muscles of TB pigs have lower protein synthesis and lipolysis gene expression than the muscles of Duroc pigs. Targeted metabolome analysis indicates that 24 metabolites significantly differ among these three pig breeds. Correlation analysis suggests that L-malic acid and β-alanine contents in muscle are closely related to meat quality. These findings suggest that the excellent meat quality of TB pigs is closely related to muscle metabolism and fiber characteristics, while lower protein synthesis and lipolysis may contribute to less meat yield.