Effects of Alternating Electric Field Assisted Freezing–Thawing–Aging Sequence on Data-Independent Acquisition Quantitative Proteomics of Longissimus dorsi Muscle

This study was designed to investigate the differences in the proteomes of bovine Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle during an alternating electric field (AEF)-assisted freezing–thawing–aging sequence based on a data-independent acquisition strategy. When compared to that of the only postmortem aging (OA) group, the meat quality of the freezing–thawing–aging sequence (FA) and AEF-assisted freezing–thawing–aging sequence (EA) groups showed a declining trend. However, the group assisted by AEF was significantly enhanced in color, water-holding capacity, and tenderness. Three hundred fifty-two proteins in LD muscle were differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) among FA, EA, and OA treatments. Furthermore, among the 40 DAPs in the FA versus EA comparison, 5 DAPs with variable importance in projection scores higher than 1 were identified as biochemical markers of beef quality. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that most of these proteins were involved in structural constituents of ribosome and catalytic activity. These results provide a basis for further understanding the quality of beef following a freezing–thawing–aging sequence assisted by AEF.