Integrating Transcriptomics and Metabolomics to Unravel the Molecular Mechanisms of Meat Quality: A Systematic Review

作者：Kaiyue Wang, Ren Mu, Yu Zhang, Xingdong Wang · 发表于：Foods · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3390/foods15081271 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Meat and Animal Product Quality、Animal Nutrition and Physiology、Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals

Meat quality serves as a pivotal determinant of consumer purchasing behavior and of the economic viability of the livestock industry; as such, research into its regulatory mechanisms is of critical significance for the development of modern agriculture. Traditional investigations into meat quality have predominantly centered on sensory and physicochemical assessments of ultimate phenotypic traits, thereby facing inherent limitations in systematically deciphering the intricate molecular regulatory networks underlying meat quality formation. By contrast, an integrated analysis of the transcriptome and metabolome effectively connects the cascade of "gene transcription-metabolic regulation-phenotypic determination," which has emerged as a core methodological paradigm in contemporary research on the molecular mechanisms governing meat quality. This review systematically delineates the evolutionary trajectory and principal technological frameworks of meat quality evaluation systems, with a focused synthesis of recent advances achieved through combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses in the field of meat quality regulation. The scope of this review encompasses core transcriptional regulatory networks associated with meat quality attributes, pivotal metabolic pathways, signal transduction mechanisms, and protein degradation dynamics. Furthermore, the regulatory impacts exerted by genetic variation among breeds, nutritional modulation, rearing environments, and stress response...