The Effect of Weight Loss on the Muscle Proteome in the Damara, Dorper and Australian Merino Ovine Breeds.

Seasonal Weight Loss (SWL) is an important constraint, limiting animal production in the Tropics and the Mediterranean. As a result, the study of physiological and biochemical mechanisms by which domestic animal breeds respond to SWL is important to those interested in animal breeding and the improvement thereof. To that end, the study of the proteome has been instrumental in gathering important information on physiological mechanisms, including those underlying SWL.

Mass spectrometry and animal science: protein identification strategies and particularities of farm animal species.

Proteomic approaches are gaining increasing importance in the context of all fields of animal and veterinary sciences, including physiology, productive characterization, and disease/parasite tolerance, among others. Proteomic studies mainly aim the proteome characterization of a certain organ, tissue, cell type or organism, either in a specific condition or comparing protein differential expression within two or more selected situations. Due to the high complexity of samples, usually total protein extracts, proteomics relies heavily on separation procedures, being 2D-electrophoresis and HPLC the most common, as well as on protein identification using mass spectrometry (MS) based methodologies.