On the potential of using peculiarities of the protein intrinsic disorder distribution in mitochondrial cytochrome b to identify the source of animal meats

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to identify the source of animal meat based on the peculiarities of protein intrinsic disorder distribution in mitochondrial cytochrome b (mtCyt-b). The analysis revealed that animal and avian species can be discriminated based on the proportions of the two groups of residues, Leu+Ile, and Ser+Pro+Ala, in the amino acid sequences of their mtCyt-b. Although levels of the overall intrinsic disorder in mtCyt-b is not very high, the peculiarities of disorder distribution within the sequences of mtCyt-b from different species varies in a rather specific way. In fact, positions and intensities of disorder/flexibility “signals” in the corresponding disorder profiles are relatively unique for avian and animal species. Therefore, it is possible to devise a set of simple rules based on the peculiarities of disorder profiles of their mtCyt-b proteins to discriminate among species. This intrinsic disorder-based analysis represents a new technique that could be used to provide a promising solution for identification of the source of meats.

KEYWORDS:

• adulteration
• animal species
• authentication
• avian species
• food products
• intrinsically disordered protein
• intrinsically disordered region
• meat
• mitochondrial cytochrome b

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by a grant from the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah (grant no. 130–063-D1434).