Study of protein degradation mechanism on fish muscle softening using proteomics and immunohistochemistry techniques

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24780203
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Fisheries chemistry
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: YOSHIDA Asami 長崎大学, 水産・環境科学総合研究科(水産), 准教授 (80589870)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: プロテアーゼ / 魚肉軟化 / プロテオーム解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we found the important basic knowledge to clarify the mechanism of fish muscle softening during storage. From the results of proteomics of red sea bream muscle, myosin heavy chain was degraded and solubilized, while tropomyosin was degraded during storage. The degradation products were detected after storage of the fish. In addition, we tried to figure out the protease which related to degrade each myofibrillar protein. Our results suggested that endogenous serine proteases and metalloproteinases were involved in degradation of most of the myofibrillar components (including myosin heavy chain, tropomyosin) while α-actinin was hydrolyzed only by cysteine proteases in red sea bream muscle. Moreover, we investigated structure and function of endogenous proteases from fish muscle by purification and molecular cloning of the enzymes. From these results, the antibodies against the endogenous proteases were produced and chosen to detect them by immunohistochemistry.

Free Research Field

水圏生化学