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Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat

  • # Authors contributed equally: Jiaqi Shao, Rui Ding

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  • The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ultrasonic-assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of duck breast meat and thigh meat. Results showed that the increase of ultrasonic power greatly accelerated the transfer of moisture and NaCl, and the highest yield was obtained by ultrasonic power of 450 W. The values of the mass transfer kinetics parameter (k2) for weight changes improved as the ultrasonic power increased. The application of ultrasound treatment enhanced the NaCl effective diffusion coefficients (De) of duck breast and thigh meat from 0.7889−0.9472 × 10−9 m2/s to 1.2661−1.3775 × 10−9 m2/s and the highest De was found with 450 W. The treatment of ultrasound can reduce shear force and water loss of duck samples. According to the analysis of water distribution, ultrasound could decrease the T22 values which indicated a decrease in water mobility. Thus, ultrasonic-assisted marination could be employed as an emerging technology for various meat-curing processes.
  • Aquaporin’s (AQPs) are small (21–34 kD) channel-forming, water-transporting trans-membrane proteins which are known as membrane intrinsic proteins (MIPs) conspicuously present across all kingdoms of life. In addition to transporting water, plant AQPs act to transport other small molecules including ammonia, carbon dioxide, glycerol, formamide, hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, and some metalloids such as boron and silicon from the soil to different parts of the plant[1]. AQPs are typically composed of six or fewer transmembrane helices (TMHs) coupled by five loops (A to E) and cytosolic N- and C-termini, which are highly conserved across taxa[2]. Asparagine-Proline-Alanine (NPA) boxes and makeup helices found in loops B (cytosolic) and E (non-cytosolic) fold back into the protein's core to form one of the pore's two primary constrictions, the NPA region[1]. A second filter zone exists at the pore's non-cytosolic end, where it is called the aromatic/arginine (ar/R) constriction. The substrate selectivity of AQPs is controlled by the amino acid residues of the NPA and ar/R filters as well as other elements of the channel[1].

    To date, the AQP gene families have been extensively explored in the model as well as crop plants[39]. In seed plants, AQP distributed into five subfamilies based on subcellular localization and sequence similarities: the plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs; subgroups PIP1 and PIP2), the tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs; TIP1-TIP5), the nodulin26-like intrinsic proteins (NIPs; NIP1-NIP5), the small basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs; SIP1-SIP2) and the uncategorized intrinsic proteins (XIPs; XIP1-XIP3)[2,10]. Among them, TIPs and PIPs are the most abundant and play a central role in facilitating water transport. SIPs are mostly found in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)[11], whereas NIPs homologous to GmNod26 are localized in the peribacteroid membrane[12].

    Several studies reported that the activity of AQPs is regulated by various developmental and environmental factors, through which water fluxes are controlled[13]. AQPs are found in all organs such as leaves, roots, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds[14,15]. According to earlier studies, increased AQP expression in transgenic plants can improve the plants' tolerance to stresses[16,17]. Increased root water flow caused by upregulation of root aquaporin expression may prevent transpiration[18,19]. Overexpression of Tamarix hispida ThPIP2:5 improved osmotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis and Tamarix plants[20]. Transgenic tomatoes having apple MdPIP1;3 ectopically expressed produced larger fruit and improved drought tolerance[21]. Plants over-expressing heterologous AQPs, on the other hand, showed negative effects on stress tolerance in many cases. Overexpression of GsTIP2;1 from G. soja in Arabidopsis plants exhibited lower resistance against salt and drought stress[22].

    A few recent studies have started to establish a link between AQPs and nanobiology, a research field that has been accelerating in the past decade due to the recognition that many nano-substances including carbon-based materials are valuable in a wide range of agricultural, industrial, and biomedical activities[23]. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were found to improve water absorption and retention and thus enhance seed germination in tomatoes[24,25]. Ali et al.[26] reported that Carbon nanoparticles (CTNs) and osmotic stress utilize separate processes for AQP gating. Despite lacking solid evidence, it is assumed that CNTs regulate the aquaporin (AQPs) in the seed coats[26]. Another highly noticed carbon-nano-molecule, the fullerenes, is a group of allotropic forms of carbon consisting of pure carbon atoms[27]. Fullerenes and their derivatives, in particular the water-soluble fullerols [C60(OH)20], are known to be powerful antioxidants, whose biological activity has been reduced to the accumulation of superoxide and hydroxyl[28,29]. Fullerene/fullerols at low concentrations were reported to enhance seed germination, photosynthesis, root growth, fruit yield, and salt tolerance in various plants such as bitter melon and barley[3032]. In contrast, some studies also reported the phytotoxic effect of fullerene/fullerols[33,34]. It remains unknown if exogenous fullerene/fullerol has any impact on the expression or activity of AQPs in the cell.

    Garden pea (P. sativum) is a cool-season crop grown worldwide; depending on the location, planting may occur from winter until early summer. Drought stress in garden pea mainly affects the flowering and pod filling which harm their yield. In the current study, we performed a genome-wide identification and characterization of the AQP genes in garden pea (P. sativum), the fourth largest legume crop worldwide with a large complex genome (~4.5 Gb) that was recently decoded[35]. In particular, we disclose, for the first time to our best knowledge, that the transcriptional regulations of AQPs by osmotic stress in imbibing pea seeds were altered by fullerol supplement, which provides novel insight into the interaction between plant AQPs, osmotic stress, and the carbon nano-substances.

    The whole-genome sequence of garden pea ('Caméor') was retrieved from the URGI Database (https://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/Species/Pisum). Protein sequences of AQPs from two model crops (Rice and Arabidopsis) and five other legumes (Soybean, Chickpea, Common bean, Medicago, and Peanut) were used to identify homologous AQPs from the garden pea genome (Supplemental Table S1). These protein sequences, built as a local database, were then BLASTp searched against the pea genome with an E-value cutoff of 10−5 and hit a score cutoff of 100 to identify AQP orthologs. The putative AQP sequences of pea were additionally validated to confirm the nature of MIP (Supplemental Table S2) and transmembrane helical domains through TMHMM (www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/TMHMM/).

    Further phylogenetic analysis was performed to categorize the AQPs into subfamilies. The pea AQP amino acid sequences, along with those from Medicago, a cool-season model legume phylogenetically close to pea, were aligned through ClustalW2 software (www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalw2) to assign protein names. The unaligned AQP sequences to Medicago counterparts were once again aligned with the AQP sequences of Arabidopsis, rice, and soybean. Based on the LG model, unrooted phylogenetic trees were generated via MEGA7 and the neighbor-joining method[36], and the specific name of each AQP gene was assigned based on its position in the phylogenetic tree.

    By using the conserved domain database (CDD, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/cdd.shtml), the NPA motifs were identified from the pea AQP protein sequences[37]. The software TMHMM (www.cbs. dtu.dk/services/TMHMM/)[38] was used to identify the protein transmembrane domains. To determine whether there were any alterations or total deletion, the transmembrane domains were carefully examined.

    Basic molecular properties including amino acid composition, relative molecular weight (MW), and instability index were investigated through the online tool ProtParam (https://web.expasy.org/protparam/). The isoelectric points (pI) were estimated by sequence Manipulation Suite version 2 (www.bioinformatics.org/sms2)[39]. The subcellular localization of AQP proteins was predicted using Plant-mPLoc[40] and WoLF PSORT (www.genscript.com/wolf-psort.html)[ 41] algorithms.

    The gene structure (intron-exon organization) of AQPs was examined through GSDS ver 2.0[42]. The chromosomal distribution of the AQP genes was illustrated by the software MapInspect (http://mapinspect.software.informer.com) in the form of a physical map.

    To explore the tissue expression patterns of pea AQP genes, existing NGS data from 18 different libraries covering a wide range of tissue, developmental stage, and growth condition of the variety ‘Caméor’ were downloaded from GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/267198). The expression levels of the AQP genes in each tissue and growth stage/condition were represented by the FPKM (Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million fragments mapped) values. Heatmaps of AQPs gene were generated through Morpheus software (https://software.broadinstitute.org/morpheus/#).

    Different solutions, which were water (W), 0.3 M mannitol (M), and fullerol of different concentrations dissolved in 0.3 M mannitol (MF), were used in this study. MF solutions with the fullerol concentration of 10, 50, 100, and 500 mg/L were denoted as MF1, MF2, MF3, and MF4, respectively. Seeds of 'SQ-1', a Chinese landrace accession of a pea, were germinated in two layers of filter paper with 30 mL of each solution in Petri dishes (12 cm in diameter) each solution, and the visual phenotype and radicle lengths of 150 seeds for each treatment were analyzed 72 h after soaking. The radicle lengths were measured using a ruler. Multiple comparisons for each treatment were performed using the SSR-Test method with the software SPSS 20.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY, USA).

    Total RNA was extracted from imbibing embryos after 12 h of seed soaking in the W, M, and MF3 solution, respectively, by using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). The quality and quantity of the total RNA were measured through electrophoresis on 1% agarose gel and an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer respectively (Agilent Technologies, Santa Rosa, USA). The TruSeq RNA Sample Preparation Kit was utilized to construct an RNA-Seq library from 5 µg of total RNA from each sample according to the manufacturer's instruction (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA). Next-generation sequencing of nine libraries were performed through Novaseq 6000 platform (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA).

    First of all, by using SeqPrep (https://github.com/jstjohn/SeqPrep) and Sickle (https://github.com/najoshi/sickle) the raw RNA-Seq reads were filtered and trimmed with default parameters. After filtering, high-quality reads were mapped onto the pea reference genome (https://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/Species/Pisum) by using TopHat (V2.1.0)[43]. Using Cufflinks, the number of mapped reads from each sample was determined and normalised to FPKM for each predicted transcript (v2.2.1). Pairwise comparisons were made between W vs M and W vs M+F treatments. The DEGs with a fold change ≥ 1.5 and false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted p-values ≤ 0.05 were identified by using Cuffdiff[44].

    qPCR was performed by using TOROGGreen® qPCR Master Mix (Toroivd, Shanghai, China) on a qTOWER®3 Real-Time PCR detection system (Analytik Jena, Germany). The reactions were performed at 95 °C for 60 s, followed by 42 cycles of 95 °C for 10 s and 60 °C for 30 s. Quantification of relative expression level was achieved by normalization against the transcripts of the housekeeping genes β-tubulin according to Kreplak et al.[35]. The primer sequences for reference and target genes used are listed in Supplemental Table S3.

    The homology-based analysis identifies 41 putative AQPs in the garden pea genome. Among them, all but two genes (Psat0s3550g0040.1, Psat0s2987g0040.1) encode full-length aquaporin-like sequences (Table 1). The conserved protein domain analysis later validated all of the expected AQPs (Supplemental Table S2). To systematically classify these genes and elucidate their relationship with the AQPs from other plants' a phylogenetic tree was created. It clearly showed that the AQPs from pea and its close relative M. truncatula formed four distinct clusters, which represented the different subfamilies of AQPs i.e. TIPs, PIPs, NIPs, and SIPs (Fig. 1a). However, out of the 41 identified pea AQPs, 4 AQPs couldn't be tightly aligned with the Medicago AQPs and thus were put to a new phylogenetic tree constructed with AQPs from rice, Arabidopsis, and soybean. This additional analysis assigned one of the 4 AQPs to the XIP subfamily and the rest three to the TIP or NIP subfamilies (Fig. 1b). Therefore, it is concluded that the 41 PsAQPs comprise 11 PsTIPs, 15 PsNIPs, 9 PsPIPs, 5 PsSIPs, and 1 PsXIP (Table 2). The PsPIPs formed two major subgroups namely PIP1s and PIP2s, which comprise three and six members, respectively (Table 1). The PsTIPs formed two major subgroups TIPs 1 (PsTIP1-1, PsTIP1-3, PsTIP1-4, PsTIP1-7) and TIPs 2 (PsTIP2-1, PsTIP2-2, PsTIP2-3, PsTIP2-6) each having four members (Table 2). Detailed information such as gene/protein names, accession numbers, the length of deduced polypeptides, and protein structural features are presented in Tables 1 & 2

    Table 1.  Description and distribution of aquaporin genes identified in the garden pea genome.
    Chromosome
    S. NoGene NameGene IDGene length
    (bp)
    LocationStartEndTranscription length (bp)CDS length
    (bp)
    Protein length
    (aa)
    1PsPIP1-1Psat5g128840.32507chr5LG3231,127,859231,130,365675675225
    2PsPIP1-2Psat2g034560.11963chr2LG149,355,95849,357,920870870290
    3PsPIP1-4Psat2g182480.11211chr2LG1421,647,518421,648,728864864288
    4PsPIP2-1Psat6g183960.13314chr6LG2369,699,084369,702,397864864288
    5PsPIP2-2-1Psat4g051960.11223chr4LG486,037,44686,038,668585585195
    6PsPIP2-2-2Psat5g279360.22556chr5LG3543,477,849543,480,4042555789263
    7PsPIP2-3Psat7g228600.22331chr7LG7458,647,213458,649,5432330672224
    8PsPIP2-4Psat3g045080.11786chr3LG5100,017,377100,019,162864864288
    9PsPIP2-5Psat0s3550g0040.11709scaffold0355020,92922,63711911191397
    10PsTIP1-1Psat3g040640.12021chr3LG589,426,47389,428,493753753251
    11PsTIP1-3Psat3g184440.12003chr3LG5393,920,756393,922,758759759253
    12PsTIP1-4Psat7g219600.12083chr7LG7441,691,937441,694,019759759253
    13PsTIP1-7Psat6g236600.11880chr6LG2471,659,417471,661,296762762254
    14PsTIP2-1Psat1g005320.11598chr1LG67,864,8107,866,407750750250
    15PsTIP2-2Psat4g198360.11868chr4LG4407,970,525407,972,392750750250
    16PsTIP2-3Psat1g118120.12665chr1LG6230,725,833230,728,497768768256
    17PsTIP2-6Psat2g177040.11658chr2LG1416,640,482416,642,139750750250
    18PsTIP3-2Psat6g054400.11332chr6LG254,878,00354,879,334780780260
    19PsTIP4-1Psat6g037720.21689chr6LG230,753,62430,755,3121688624208
    20PsTIP5-1Psat7g157600.11695chr7LG7299,716,873299,718,567762762254
    21PsNIP1-1Psat1g195040.21864chr1LG6346,593,853346,595,7161863645215
    22PsNIP1-3Psat1g195800.11200chr1LG6347,120,121347,121,335819819273
    23PsNIP1-5Psat7g067480.12365chr7LG7109,420,633109,422,997828828276
    24PsNIP1-6Psat7g067360.12250chr7LG7109,270,462109,272,711813813271
    25PsNIP1-7Psat1g193240.11452chr1LG6344,622,606344,624,057831831277
    26PsNIP2-1-2Psat3g197520.1669chr3LG5420,092,382420,093,050345345115
    27PsNIP2-2-2Psat3g197560.1716chr3LG5420,103,168420,103,883486486162
    28PsNIP3-1Psat2g072000.11414chr2LG1133,902,470133,903,883798798266
    29PsNIP4-1Psat7g126440.11849chr7LG7209,087,362209,089,210828828276
    30PsNIP4-2Psat5g230920.11436chr5LG3463,340,575463,342,010825825275
    31PsNIP5-1Psat6g190560.11563chr6LG2383,057,323383,058,885867867289
    32PsNIP6-1Psat5g304760.45093chr5LG3573,714,868573,719,9605092486162
    33PsNIP6-2Psat7g036680.12186chr7LG761,445,34161,447,134762762254
    34PsNIP6-3Psat7g259640.12339chr7LG7488,047,315488,049,653918918306
    35PsNIP7-1Psat6g134160.24050chr6LG2260,615,019260,619,06840491509503
    36PsSIP1-1Psat3g091120.13513chr3LG5187,012,329187,015,841738738246
    37PsSIP1-2Psat1g096840.13609chr1LG6167,126,599167,130,207744744248
    38PsSIP1-3Psat7g203280.12069chr7LG7401,302,247401,304,315720720240
    39PsSIP2-1-1Psat0s2987g0040.1706scaffold02987177,538178,243621621207
    40PsSIP2-1-2Psat3g082760.13135chr3LG5173,720,100173,723,234720720240
    41PsXIP2-1Psat7g178080.12077chr7LG7335,167,251335,169,327942942314
    bp: base pair, aa: amino acid.
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    Figure 1.  Phylogenetic analysis of the identified AQPs from pea genome. (a) The pea AQPs proteins aligned with those from the cool-season legume Medicago truncatual. (b) The four un-assigned pea AQPs in (a) (denoted as NA) were further aligned with the AQPs of rice, soybean, and Arabidopsis by using the Clustal W program implemented in MEGA 7 software. The nomenclature of PsAQPs was based on homology with the identified aquaporins that were clustered together.
    Table 2.  Protein information, conserved amino acid residues, trans-membrane domains, selectivity filter, and predicted subcellular localization of the 39 full-length pea aquaporins.
    S. NoAQPsGeneLengthTMHNPANPAar/R selectivity filterpIWoLF PSORTPlant-mPLoc
    LBLEH2H5LE1LE2
    Plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs)
    1PsPIP1-1Psat5g128840.32254NPA0F0008.11PlasPlas
    2PsPIP1-2Psat2g034560.12902NPANPAFHTR9.31PlasPlas
    3PsPIP1-4Psat2g182480.12886NPANPAFHTR9.29PlasPlas
    4PsPIP2-1Psat6g183960.12886NPANPAFHT08.74PlasPlas
    5PsPIP2-2-1Psat4g051960.1195300FHTR8.88PlasPlas
    6PsPIP2-2-2Psat5g279360.22635NPANPAFHTR5.71PlasPlas
    7PsPIP2-3Psat7g228600.22244NPA0FF006.92PlasPlas
    8PsPIP2-4Psat3g045080.12886NPANPAFHTR8.29PlasPlas
    Tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs)
    1PsTIP1-1Psat3g040640.12517NPANPAHIAV6.34PlasVacu
    2PsTIP1-3Psat3g184440.12536NPANPAHIAV5.02Plas/VacuVacu
    3PsTIP1-4Psat7g219600.12537NPANPAHIAV4.72VacuVacu
    4PsTIP1-7Psat6g236600.12546NPANPAHIAV5.48Plas/VacuVacu
    5PsTIP2-1Psat1g005320.12506NPANPAHIGR8.08VacuVacu
    6PsTIP2-2Psat4g198360.12506NPANPAHIGR5.94Plas/VacuVacu
    7PsTIP2-3Psat1g118120.12566NPANPAHIAL6.86Plas/VacuVacu
    8PsTIP2-6Psat2g177040.12506NPANPAHIGR4.93VacuVacu
    9PsTIP3-2Psat6g054400.12606NPANPAHIAR7.27Plas/VacuVacu
    10PsTIP4-1Psat6g037720.22086NPANPAHIAR6.29Vac/ plasVacu
    11PsTIP5-1Psat7g157600.12547NPANPANVGC8.2Vacu /plasVacu/Plas
    Nodulin-26 like intrisic proteins (NIPs)
    1PsNIP1-1Psat1g195040.22155NPA0WVF06.71PlasPlas
    2PsNIP1-3Psat1g195800.12735NPANPVWVAR6.77PlasPlas
    3PsNIP1-5Psat7g067480.12766NPANPVWVAN8.98PlasPlas
    4PsNIP1-6Psat7g067360.12716NPANPAWVAR8.65Plas/VacuPlas
    5PsNIP1-7Psat1g193240.12776NPANPAWIAR6.5Plas/VacuPlas
    6PsNIP2-1-2Psat3g197520.11152NPAOG0009.64PlasPlas
    7PsNIP2-2-2Psat3g197560.116230NPA0SGR6.51PlasPlas
    8PsNIP3-1Psat2g072000.12665NPANPASIAR8.59Plas/VacuPlas
    9PsNIP4-1Psat7g126440.12766NPANPAWVAR6.67PlasPlas
    10PsNIP4-2Psat5g230920.12756NPANPAWLAR7.01PlasPlas
    11PsNIP5-1Psat6g190560.12895NPSNPVAIGR7.1PlasPlas
    12PsNIP6-1Psat5g304760.41622NPA0I0009.03PlasPlas
    13PsNIP6-2Psat7g036680.1254000G0005.27ChloPlas/Nucl
    14PsNIP6-3Psat7g259640.13066NPANPVTIGR8.32PlasPlas
    15PsNIP7-1Psat6g134160.25030NLK0WGQR8.5VacuChlo/Nucl
    Small basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs)
    1PsSIP1-1Psat3g091120.12466NPTNPAVLPN9.54PlasPlas/Vacu
    2PsSIP1-2Psat1g096840.12485NTPNPAIVPL9.24VacuPlas/Vacu
    3PsSIP1-3Psat7g203280.12406NPSNPANLPN10.32ChloPlas
    4PsSIP2-1-2Psat3g082760.12404NPLNPAYLGS10.28PlasPlas
    Uncharacterized X intrinsic proteins (XIPs)
    1PsXIP2-1Psat7g178080.13146SPVNPAVVRM7.89PlasPlas
    Length: protein length (aa); pI: Isoelectric point; Trans-membrane helicase (TMH) represents for the numbers of Trans-membrane helices predicted by TMHMM Server v.2.0 tool; WoLF PSORT and Plant-mPLoc: best possible cellualr localization predicted by the WoLF PSORT and Plant-mPLoc tool, respectively (Chlo Chloroplast, Plas Plasma membrane, Vacu Vacuolar membrane, Nucl Nucleus); LB: Loop B, L: Loop E; NPA: Asparagine-Proline-Alanine; H2 represents for Helix 2, H5 represents for Helix 5, LE1 represents for Loop E1, LE2 represents for Loop E2, Ar/R represents for Aromatic/Arginine.
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    To understand the genome distribution of the 41 PsAQPs, we mapped these genes onto the seven chromosomes of a pea to retrieve their physical locations (Fig. 2). The greatest number (10) of AQPs were found on chromosome 7, whereas the least (2) on chromosome 4 (Fig. 2 and Table 1). Chromosomes 1 and 6 each contain six aquaporin genes, whereas chromosomes 2, 3, and 5 carry four, seven, and four aquaporin genes, respectively (Fig. 2). The trend of clustered distribution of AQPs was seen on specific chromosomes, particularly near the end of chromosome 7.

    Figure 2.  Chromosomal localization of the 41 PsAQPs on the seven chromosomes of pea. Chr1-7 represents the chromosomes 1 to 7. The numbers on the right of each chromosome show the physical map positions of the AQP genes (Mbp). Blue, green, orange, brown, and black colors represent TIPs, NIPs, PIPs, SIPs, and XIP, respectively.

    The 39 full-length PsAQP proteins have a length of amino acid ranging from 115 to 503 (Table 1) and Isoelectric point (pI) values ranging from 4.72 to 10.35 (Table 2). As a structural signature, transmembrane domains were predicted to exist in all PsAQPs, with the number in individual AQPs varying from 2 to 6. By subfamilies, TIPs harbor the greatest number of TM domains in total, followed by PIPs, NIPs, SIPs, and XIP (Table 2). Exon-intron structure analysis showed that most PsAQPs (16/39) having two introns, while ten members had three, seven members had four, and five members had only one intron (Fig. 3). Overall, PsAQPs exhibited a complex structure with varying intron numbers, positions, and lengths.

    Figure 3.  The exon-intron structures of the AQP genes in pea. Upstream/downstream region, exon, and intron are represented by a blue box, yellow box, and grey line, respectively.

    As aforementioned, generally highly conserved two NPA motifs generate an electrostatic repulsion of protons in AQPs to form the water channel, which is essential for the transport of substrate molecules[15]. In order to comprehend the potential physiological function and substrate specificity of pea aquaporins, NPA motifs (LB, LE) and residues at the ar/R selectivity filter (H2, H5, LE1, and LE2) were examined. (Table 2). We found that all PsTIPs and most PsPIPs had two conserved NPA motifs except for PsPIP1-1, PsPIP2-2-1, and PsPIP2-3, each having a single NPA motif. Among PsNIPs, PsNIP1-6, PsNIP1-6, PsNIP1-7, PsNIP3-1, PsNIP4-1 and PSNIP4-2 had two NPA domains, while PsNIP1-1, PsNIP2-1-2, PsNIP2-2-2 and PsNIP6-1 each had a single NPA motif. In the PsNIP sub-family, the first NPA motif showed an Alanine (A) to Valine (V) substitution in three PsNIPs (PsNIP1-3, PsNIP1-5, and PsNIP6-3) (Table 2). Furthermore, the NPA domains of all members of the XIP and SIP subfamilies were different. The second NPA motif was conserved in PsSIP aquaporins, however, all of the first NPA motifs had Alanine (A) replaced by Leucine (L) (PsSIP2-1-1, PsSIP2-1-2) or Threonine (T) (PsSIP1-1). In comparison to other subfamilies, this motif variation distinguishes water and solute-transporting aquaporins[45].

    Compared to NPA motifs, the ar/R positions were more variable and the amino acid composition appeared to be subfamily-dependent. The majority of PsPIPs had phenylalanine at H2, histidine at H5, threonine at LE1, and arginine at LE2 selective filter (Table 2). All of the PsTIP1 members had a Histidine-Isoleucine-Alanine-Valine structure at this position, while all PsTIP2 members but PsTIP2-3 harbored Histidine-Isoleucine-Glycine-Arginine. Similarly, PsNIPs, PsSIPs and PsXIP also showed subgroup-specific variation in ar/R selectivity filter (Table 2). Each of these substitutions partly determines the function of transporting water[46].

    Sequence-based subcellular localization analysis using WoLF PSORT predicted that all PsPIPs localized in the plasma membrane, which is consistent with their subfamily classification (Table 2). Around half (5/11) of the PsTIPs (PsTIP1-4, PsTIP2-1, PsTIP2-6, PsTIP4-1, and PsTIP5-1) were predicted to localize within vacuoles. However, several TIP members (PsTIP1-1, PsTIP1-3, PsTIP1-7, PsTIP2-2, PsTIP2-3 and PsTIP3-2) were predicted to localize in plasma membranes. We then further investigated their localizations by using another software (Plant-mPLoc, Table 2), which predicted that all the PsTIPs localize within vacuoles, thus supporting that they are tonoplast related. An overwhelming majority of PsNIPs (14/15) and PsXIP were predicted to be found only in plasma membranes., which was also expected (Table 2). Collectively, the versatility in subcellular localization of the pea AQPs is implicative of their distinct roles in controlling water and/or solute transport in the context of plant cell compartmentation.

    Tissue expression patterns of genes are indicative of their functions. Since there were rich resources of RNA-Seq data from various types of pea tissues in the public database, they were used for the extraction of expression information of PsAQP genes as represented by FPKM values. A heat map was generated to show the expression patterns of PsAQP genes in 18 different tissues/stages and their responses to nitrate levels (Fig. 4). According to the heat map, PsPIP1-2, PsPIP2-3 were highly expressed in root and nodule G (Low-nitrate), whereas PsTIP1-4, PsTIP2-6, and PsNIP1-7 were only expressed in roots in comparison to other tissues. The result also demonstrated that PsPIP1-1 and PsNIP3-1 expressed more abundantly in leaf, tendril, and peduncle, whereas PsPIP2-2-2 and PsTIP1-1 showed high to moderate expressions in all the samples except for a few. Interestingly, PsTIP1-1 expression in many green tissues seemed to be oppressed by low-nitrate. In contrast, some AQPs such as PsTIP1-3, PsTIP1-7, PsTIP5-1, PsNIP1-5, PsNIP4-1, PsNIP5-1, and PsSIP2-1-1 showed higher expression only in the flower tissue. There were interesting developmental stage-dependent regulations of some AQPs in seeds (Fig. 4). For example, PsPIP2-1, PsPIP2-2-1, PsNIP1-6, PsSIP1-1, and PsSIP1-2 were more abundantly expressed in the Seed_12 dap (days after pollination;) tissue than in the Seed_5 dai (days after imbibition) tissue; reversely, PsPIP2-2-2, PsPIP2-4, PsTIP2-3, and PsTIP3-2 showed higher expression in seed_5 dai in compare to seed_12 dap tissues (Fig. 4). The AQP genes may have particular functional roles in the growth and development of the pea based on their tissue-specific expression.

    Figure 4.  Heatmap analysis of the expression of pea AQP gene expressions in different tissues using RNA-seq data (PRJNA267198). Normalized expression of aquaporins in terms of reads per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (RPKM) showing higher levels of PIPs, NIPs, TIPs SIPs, and XIP expression across the different tissues analyzed. (Stage A represents 7-8 nodes; stage B represents the start of flowering; stage D represents germination, 5 d after imbibition; stage E represents 12 d after pollination; stage F represents 8 d after sowing; stage G represents 18 d after sowing, LN: Low-nitrate; HN: High-nitrate.

    Expressions of plant AQPs in vegetative tissues under normal and stressed conditions have been extensively studied[15]; however, little is known about the transcriptional regulation of AQP genes in seeds/embryos. To provide insights into this specific area, wet-bench RNA-Seq was performed on the germinating embryo samples isolated from water (W)-imbibed seeds and those treated with mannitol (M, an osmotic reagent), mannitol, and mannitol plus fullerol (F, a nano-antioxidant). The phenotypic evaluation showed that M treatment had a substantial inhibitory effect on radicle growth, whereas the supplement of F significantly mitigated this inhibition at all concentrations, in particular, 100 mg/mL in MF3, which increased the radicle length by ~33% as compared to that under solely M treatment (Fig. 5). The expression values of PsAQP genes were removed from the RNA-Seq data, and pairwise comparisons were made within the Group 1: W vs M, and Group 2: W vs MF3, where a total of ten and nince AQPs were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs), respectively (Fig. 6). In Group 1, six DEGs were up-regulated and four DEGs down-regulated, whereas in Group 2, six DEGs were up-regulated and three DEGs down-regulated. Four genes viz. PsPIPs2-5, PsNIP6-3, PsTIP2-3, and PsTIP3-2 were found to be similarly regulated by M or MF3 treatment (Fig. 6), indicating that their regulation by osmotic stress couldn't be mitigated by fullerol. Three genes, all being PsNIPs (1-1, 2-1-2, and 4-2), were up-regulated only under mannitol treatment without fullerol, suggesting that their perturbations by osmotic stress were migrated by the antioxidant activities. In contrast, four other genes namely PsTIP2-2, PsTIP4-1, PsNIP1-5, and PsSIP1-3 were only regulated under mannitol treatment when fullerol was present.

    Figure 5.  The visual phenotype and radicle length of pea seeds treated with water (W), 0.3 M mannitol (M), and fullerol of different concentrations dissolved in 0.3 M mannitol (MF). MF1, MF2, MF3, and MF4 indicated fullerol dissolved in 0.3 M mannitol at the concentration of 10, 50, 100, and 500 mg/L, respectively. (a) One hundred and fifty grains of pea seeds each were used for phenotype analysis at 72 h after treatment. Radicle lengths were measured using a ruler in three replicates R1, R2, and R3 in all the treatments. (b) Multiple comparison results determined using the SSR-Test method were shown with lowercase letters to indicate statistical significance (P < 0.05).
    Figure 6.  Venn diagram showing the shared and unique differentially expressed PsAQP genes in imbibing seeds under control (W), Mannitol (M) and Mannitol + Fullerol (MF3) treatments. Up-regulation (UG): PsPIP2-5, PsNIP1-1, PsNIP2-1-2, PsNIP4-2, PsNIP6-3, PsNIP1-5, PsTIP2-2, PsTIP4-1, PsSIP1-3, PsXIP2-1; Down-regulation (DG): PsTIP2-3, PsTIP3-2, PsNIP1-7, PsNIP5-1, PsXIP2-1.

    As a validation of the RNA-Seq data, eight genes showing differential expressions in imbibing seeds under M or M + F treatments were selected for qRT-PCR analysis, which was PsTIP4-1, PsTIP2-2, PsTIP2-3, PsTIP3-2, PsPIP2-5, PsXIP2-1, PsNIP6-3 and PsNIP1-5 shown in Fig 6, the expression modes of all the selected genes but PsXIP2-1 were well consistent between the RNA-Seq and the qRT-PCR data. PsXIP2-1, exhibiting slightly decreased expression under M treatment according to RNA-Seq, was found to be up-regulated under the same treatment by qRT-PCR (Fig. 7). This gene was therefore removed from further discussions.

    Figure 7.  The expression patterns of seven PsAQPs in imbibing seeds as revealed by RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR. The seeds were sampled after 12 h soaking in three different solutions, namely water (W), 0.3 M mannitol (M), and 100 mg/L fullerol dissolved in 0.3 M mannitol (MF3) solution. Error bars are standard errors calculated from three replicates.

    This study used the recently available garden pea genome to perform genome-wide identification of AQPs[35] to help understand their functions in plant growth and development. A total of 39 putative full-length AQPs were found in the garden pea genome, which is very similar to the number of AQPs identified in many other diploid legume crops such as 40 AQPs genes in pigeon pea, chickpea, common bean[7,47,48], and 44 AQPs in Medicago[49]. On the other hand, the number of AQP genes in pea is greater compared to diploid species like rice (34)[4], Arabidopsis thaliana (35)[3], and 32 and 36 in peanut A and B genomes, respectively[8]. Phylogenetic analysis assigned the pea AQPs into all five subfamilies known in plants, whereas the presence of only one XIP in this species seems less than the number in other diploid legumes which have two each in common bean and Medicago[5,48,49]. The functions of the XIP-type AQP will be of particular interest to explore in the future.

    The observed exon-intron structures in pea AQPs were found to be conserved and their phylogenetic distribution often correlated with these structures. Similar exon-intron patterns were seen in PIPs and TIPs subfamily of Arabidopsis, soybean, and tomato[3,6,50]. The two conserved NPA motifs and the four amino acids forming the ar/R SF mostly regulate solute specificity and transport of the substrate across AQPs[47,51]. According to our analysis, all the members of each AQP subfamilies in garden pea showed mostly conserved NPA motifs and a similar ar/R selective filter. Interestingly, most PsPIPs carry double NPA in LB and LE and a hydrophilic ar/R SF (F/H/T/R) as observed in three legumes i.e., common bean[48], soybean[5] chickpea[7], showing their affinity for water transport. All the TIPs of garden pea have double NPA in LB and LE and wide variation at selectivity filters. Most PsTIP1s (1-1, 1-3, 1-4, and 1-7) were found with H-I-A-V ar/R selectivity filter similar to other species such as Medicago, Arachis, and common bean, that are reported to transport water and other small molecules like boron, hydrogen peroxide, urea, and ammonia[52]. Compared with related species, the TIPs residues in the ar/R selectivity filter were very similar to those in common bean[48], Medicago[49], and Arachis[8]. In the present study, the NIPs, NIP1s (1-3, 1-5, 1-6, and1-7), and NIP2-2-2 genes have G-S-G-R selectivity. Interestingly, NIP2s with a G-S-G-R selectivity filter plays an important role in silicon influx (Si) in many plant species such as Soybean and Arachis[6,8]. It was reported that Si accumulation protects plants against various types of biotic and abiotic stresses[53].

    The subcellular localization investigation suggested that most of the PsAQPs were localized to the plasma membrane or vacuolar membrane. The members of the PsPIPs, PsNIPs, and PsXIP subfamilies were mostly located in the plasma membrane, whereas members of the PsTIPs subfamily were often predicted to localize in the vacuolar membrane. Similar situations were reported in many other legumes such as common bean, soybean, and chickpea[5,7,48]. Apart from that, PsSIPs subfamily were predicted to localize to the plasma membrane or vacuolar membrane, and some AQPs were likely to localize in broader subcellular positions such as the nucleus, cytosol, and chloroplast, which indicates that AQPs may be involved in various molecular transport functions.

    AQPs have versatile physiological functions in various plant organs. Analysis of RNA-Seq data showed a moderate to high expression of the PsPIPs in either root or green tissues except for PsPIP2-4, indicating their affinity to water transport. In several other species such as Arachis[8], common bean[48], and Medicago[49], PIPs also were reported to show high expressions and were considered to play an important role to maintain root and leaf hydraulics. Also interestingly, PsTIP2-3 and PsTIP3-2 showed high expressions exclusively in seeds at 5 d after imbibition, indicating their specific roles in seed germination. Earlier, a similar expression pattern for TIP3s was reported in Arabidopsis during the initial phase of seed germination and seed maturation[54], soybean[6], canola[55], and Medicago[49], suggesting that the main role of TIP3s in regulating seed development is conserved across species.

    Carbon nanoparticles such as fullerol have a wide range of potential applications as well as safety concerns in agriculture. Fullerol has been linked to plant protection from oxidative stress by influencing ROS accumulation and activating the antioxidant system in response to drought[56]. The current study revealed that fullerol at an adequate concentration (100 mg/L), had favorable effects on osmotic stress alleviation. In this study, the radical growth of germinating seeds was repressed by the mannitol treatment, and many similar observations have been found in previous studies[57]. Furthermore, mannitol induces ROS accumulation in plants, causing oxidative stress[58]. Our work further validated that the radical growth of germinating seeds were increased during fullerol treatment. Fullerol increased the length of roots and barley seeds, according to Panova et al.[32]. Fullerol resulted in ROS detoxification in seedlings subjected to water stress[32].

    Through transcriptomic profiling and qRT-PCR, several PsAQPs that responded to osmotic stress by mannitol and a combination of mannitol and fullerol were identified. Most of these differentially expressed AQPs belonged to the TIP and NIP subfamilies. (PsTIP2-2, PsTIP2-3, and PsTIP 3-2) showed higher expression by mannitol treatment, which is consistent with the fact that many TIPs in other species such as GmTIP2;3 and Eucalyptus grandis TIP2 (EgTIP2) also showed elevated expressions under osmotic stress[54,59]. The maturation of the vacuolar apparatus is known to be aided by the TIPs, which also enable the best possible water absorption throughout the growth of embryos and the germination of seeds[60]. Here, the higher expression of PsTIP (2-2, 2-3, and 3-2) might help combat water deficiency in imbibing seeds due to osmotic stress. The cellular signals triggering such transcriptional regulation seem to be independent of the antioxidant system because the addition of fullerol didn’t remove such regulation. On the other hand, the mannitol-induced regulation of most PsNIPs were eliminated when fullerol was added, suggesting either a response of these NIPs to the antioxidant signals or being due to the mitigated cellular stress. Based on our experimental data and previous knowledge, we propose that the fullerol-induced up- or down-regulation of specific AQPs belonging to different subfamilies and locating in different subcellular compartments, work coordinatedly with each other, to maintain the water balance and strengthen the tolerance to osmotic stress in germinating pea seeds through reduction of ROS accumulation and enhancement of antioxidant enzyme levels. Uncategorized X intrinsic proteins (XIPs) Aquaporins are multifunctional channels that are accessible to water, metalloids, and ROS.[32,56]. Due likely to PCR bias, the expression data of PsXIP2-1 from qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq analyses didn’t match well, hampering the drawing of a solid conclusion about this gene. Further studies are required to verify and more deeply dissect the functions of each of these PsAQPs in osmotic stress tolerance.

    A total of 39 full-length AQP genes belonging to five sub-families were identified from the pea genome and characterized for their sequences, phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, subcellular localization, and expression profiles. The number of AQP genes in pea is similar to that in related diploid legume species. The RNA-seq data revealed that PsTIP (2-3, 3-2) showed high expression in seeds for 5 d after imbibition, indicating their possible role during the initial phase of seed germination. Furthermore, gene expression profiles displayed that higher expression of PsTIP (2-3, 3-2) in germinating seeds might help maintain water balance under osmotic stress to confer tolerance. Our results suggests that the biological functions of fullerol in plant cells are exerted partly through the interaction with AQPs.

    Under Bio project ID PRJNA793376 at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, raw data of sequencing read has been submitted. The accession numbers for the RNA-seq raw data are stored in GenBank and are mentioned in Supplemental Table S4.

    This study is supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China (2022YFE0198000) and the Key Research Program of Zhejiang Province (2021C02041).

  • Pei Xu is the Editorial Board member of journal Vegetable Research. He was blinded from reviewing or making decisions on the manuscript. The article was subject to the journal's standard procedures, with peer-review handled independently of this Editorial Board member and his research group.

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  • Cite this article

    Shao J, Ding R, Sheng C, Xu X, Zhao X. 2024. Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat. Food Materials Research 4: e019 doi: 10.48130/fmr-0024-0010
    Shao J, Ding R, Sheng C, Xu X, Zhao X. 2024. Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat. Food Materials Research 4: e019 doi: 10.48130/fmr-0024-0010

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Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat

Food Materials Research  4 Article number: e019  (2024)  |  Cite this article

Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ultrasonic-assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of duck breast meat and thigh meat. Results showed that the increase of ultrasonic power greatly accelerated the transfer of moisture and NaCl, and the highest yield was obtained by ultrasonic power of 450 W. The values of the mass transfer kinetics parameter (k2) for weight changes improved as the ultrasonic power increased. The application of ultrasound treatment enhanced the NaCl effective diffusion coefficients (De) of duck breast and thigh meat from 0.7889−0.9472 × 10−9 m2/s to 1.2661−1.3775 × 10−9 m2/s and the highest De was found with 450 W. The treatment of ultrasound can reduce shear force and water loss of duck samples. According to the analysis of water distribution, ultrasound could decrease the T22 values which indicated a decrease in water mobility. Thus, ultrasonic-assisted marination could be employed as an emerging technology for various meat-curing processes.

    • Static wet marination and dry curing are conventional treatments for processing Chinese duck meat products, such as Nanjing salted duck, Nanjing pressed salted duck, sauced duck, cured duck, and so on. Traditional marination and curing processes are quite time-consuming, low efficiency and probably enzymatic softening, which also have a negative impact on the shelf-life of meat products[1]. To accelerate these processes, mechanical-assisted methods like tumbling and injecting are applied by many industries to produce traditional duck products. However, these fierce mechanical forces might cause muscle breakdown and deteriorate the appearance as well as the integrity of the final products[2]. Therefore, a more moderate but effective way is urgently needed to shorten the marination time.

      In recent years, ultrasonic treatment (UT) has been widely noticed as a feasible and eco-friendly strategy to improve the quality and efficiency of the marination processing[3,4]. There are four major merits of ultrasonic treatment in terms of accelerating the marination process[57]: 1) acoustic cavitation: ultrasonic waves generate cavitation bubbles and then propagate in the liquid. These bubbles collapse rapidly and result in internal high acoustic pressure, which facilitates the brine penetration and mass migration; 2) mechanical effects: ultrasound waves also exert mechanical vibration around the meat-brine surface, contributing to muscle tissue rupture and thus muscle tenderness; 3) thermal effects: the acoustic cavitation bubbles vibrate and explode, which leads to obvious temperature rises and potentially protein structure modification; 4) reactive oxygen species generation: ultrasonic treatment could increase H2O2 and ROS production, including hydroxyl radicals (·OH), hydroperoxyl radicals (·HO2), and O2, promoting the moderate oxidation reaction, which might positively affect the functionality of meat protein.

      Ultrasonic-assisted treatment is widely applied in poultry meat production, during which the frequency, intensity, treating time are all closely related to the efficiency of mass transfer. Inguglia et al.[8] and Tong et al.[9] have verified that ultrasonic treatment could promote sodium salt, phosphate salt, and water transfer towards chicken breast meat, and under the same amount of time, the ultrasonic marinated chicken breast with increased frequency showed significantly higher sodium uptake compared to low frequency and untreated groups. Combining UT during duck preservation not only inhibits the physicochemical quality deterioration of sauced duck, but also lowers the microbiology growth at 4 °C[10].

      It is noticeable that the muscle merit of duck thigh is quite different from duck breast. As reported, the muscle fiber phenotype and composition of poultry thigh meat are distinctive from breast meat, leading to various meat tissue matrices and inter-/intra- muscular fat in muscles. The leg muscle of avians is mainly composed of slow fiber, while the breast muscle is mainly composed of fast fiber. Therefore, the physical properties, tenderness, and water-holding capacity of various duck muscle types are greatly different[11]. Gong et al.[12] have also found that the duck thigh showed a much higher pH value compared to breast meat. Hence, it is easy to predicted that the mass transfer kinetics and physicochemical properties of duck meat are affected by muscle type.

      Therefore, the objective of this work is to: 1) investigate the effect of ultrasonic assistant with different powers on the mass transfer of both duck breast and thigh marination process and establish marinating kinetic models; 2) to compare the shear force, drip loss, cooking loss, and water distribution of ultrasonic-marinated duck with static-marinated sample. The results of this study will provide fundamental data for efficiently producing low-salt duck products.

    • Samples of duck breast and duck thigh muscle were acquired from Cherry Valley ducks from large meat producers. Samples were placed at −18 °C for less than a week and thawed at 4 °C overnight before using. Before marination, the visually obvious fat and connective tissues were removed, and both breast and thigh counterparts were cut into 4 cm × 2 cm × 1 cm (8 cm3) cubes. These meat samples were treated and analyzed immediately.

    • The ultrasonic marination was performed in a non-contact ultrasonic multi-faceted dispersion instrument (LC-1500W, Ningbo, China). All the breast and thigh meat cubes were randomly separated into four groups and then ultrasonic-assisted-marinated under 0, 150, 300, and 400 W power for 20, 40, 80, and 120 min at a frequency of 20 kHz. To inhibit the excessive salt penetration, the meat samples were immersed in a marination brine with 2.5% NaCl, and the ratio between samples and salt solution was set as 1:2 as preliminary determined. The bath temperature was maintained constant at 4 °C during the ultrasonic application.

    • The water content of duck meat samples during ultrasonic assisted marination was determined using direct drying methods as described in GB 5009.3-2016. The salt content was carried out according to Zhang et al.[13].

      To evaluate the salt content in marinated samples, the meat was minced and ~5 g paste was then removed into 50 ml centrifuge tubes. Adding 3 times deionized water and vortexing for 24 h to let the salt fully extracted into water. The total salt content was then measured by a hand-held salinity meter (PAL-SALT, Atago Co., Ltd., Japan).

      Changes in total weight, water weight, and salt weight at t times were calculated using the following Eqns (1−3):

      ΔM0t=M0tM00M00×100 (1)
      ΔMWt=M0t×XWtM00×XW0M00×100 (2)
      ΔMNaClt=M0t×XNaCltM00×XNaCl0M00×100 (3)

      Where, M00 and M0t are the sample weight at times 0 and t (20, 40, 80, 120 min), respectively. Whereas, XW0, XWt, XNaCl0 and XNaClt represent the water (W) and NaCl content in a given sample at times 0 and t (20, 40, 80, and 120 min), respectively.

    • (1) To delineate the mass transfer behavior during ultrasonic-assisted marination, the following model (Eqn 4) as previously reported, was used to fit the changes in total weight, moisture content, and NaCl content[14]. Accordingly, the mass changes are linear related to the square root of marination time.

      ΔMit=1+k1+k2×t0.5 (4)

      Where, ΔMit includes total weight changes (ΔM0t), water content changes (ΔMwt) and NaCl content changes (ΔMNaClt). The k1 represent the initial state at the beginning of mass transfer, and k2 is related to diffusion kinetics, which is dependent on brine composition.

      (2) The salt equilibrium equation (Eqn 5) was also applied to describe the mass transfer process[15]. The NaCl contents in the brine (yNaCle) and aqueous phase (ZNaCle) of the duck muscles are theoretically equal.

      ZNaCle=yNaCle=MSD0MSS0×XNaCl0+yNaCl0MSD0MSS0×(Xw0+XNaCl0)+(yw0+yNaCl0) (5)

      Where, Xw0 and XNaCl0 represent the water content and NaCl content in duck muscle at 0 marination time, yw0 and yNaCl0 represent the water content and NaCl content in brine solution, and MSD0/MSS0 is the ratio of weight between duck meat and brine solution.

      (3) As reported by Gallart-Jornet et al.[14], to correct the effect of hydrodynamic mechanisms on the deviation of the adjusted equation from the coordinate’s origin and diminish mass transfer phenomena occurring at the very beginning of the marination, the integrated solution of Fick's equation for a semi-infinite slab was introduced with an independent term K. The changes in the ZNaCl and yNaCl values with marination time were used to determine the effective diffusion coefficient of the duck breast and thigh samples as fitted with Eqn (6).

      1YNaClt=1[ZNaCltyNaCltZNaCl0yNaCle]=2×(De×tπ×l2)0.5+K (6)

      Where, 1YNaClt represents the reduced driving force between meat liquid phase and brine solution, ZNaCl0, ZNaClt and ZNaCle represent the NaCl content in a given sample at 0, t, and balance salting time and l is half of the samples’ thickness.

    • After marination, the raw meat cubes were placed in a digital meat tenderness meter (C-LM3B, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China) under room temperature. Each samples were shear at three locations and the averages were calculated as the shear forces.

    • The pieces of marinated duck meat were weighed and the weight was recorded as m1. A hook was used under the lid to hang the meat slice, which was then put in a PVA plastic bag, tightly sealed, and stored at 4 °C for 24 h. After storage, the slice of meat was carefully dabbed and weighed (recorded as m2). The drip loss was calculated using the following equation:

      Driploss=m1m2m1×100%
    • The marinated duck meat samples were placed in a plastic bag after carefully weighed (recorded as m3). The sealed samples were heated in a 80 °C water bath for 15 min until the core temperature of meat reached > 75 °C. The surface of these thermally treated meat was dabbed and weighed again (recorded as m4). The cooking loss was calculated using the following equation:

      Cookingloss=m3m4m3×100%
    • The marinated duck meat sample was trimmed to 4 cm × 1 cm × 1 cm (4 cm3) cubes, wrapped with plastic film and then placed in a cylindrical glass tube (d = 15 mm) with a resonant frequency of 21.0 MHz by an LF-NMR analyzer (MesoMR23, Newsmy, Suzhou). The transverse relaxation time (T2) was measured using a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) with the following parameters: temeprature = 32 °C, testing time = 200 ms, interval time = 4,000 ms, and NECH = 4,000. The resulting attenuation curve was subjected to an inversion operation with MultiExp Inv Analysis software (Niumag Electric Corporation, Suzhou, China).

    • Statistical analysis were carried out using one-way ANOVA with SPSS software (version 26.0, IBM Co., USA). The significant difference between treatments was determined using Duncan’s multiple range test. The fitting process of mass transfer kinetics was performed using a simple linear regression (least square) using the Origin program. A statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05.

    • During the marination process, the mass transfer mainly occurred between meat samples and salt solution, and was manifested by the diffusion of small molecules (i.e. moisture, salt, etc.). The rate of total weight change, water change, and NaCl change with different ultrasound conditions is shown in Fig. 1. The changes in total weight (ΔM0t) of samples were affected by meat types and ultrasound conditions. With the increase of ultrasonic power from 0 W to 450 W, an increment in changes of total weight was observed, and the largest change was obtained in the power of 450 W. At the end of marination (120 min), the values of ΔM0t in duck breast and duck thigh were 5.56% and 5.57%, respectively. This phenomenon may be caused by the swelling of muscle fibers and the damage to tissue structure[16]. As for the content change of water (ΔMwt), it gradually increased with the processing of marination. Compared with the control group (0 W), the UT group with higher ultrasonic power gained more water. When the marination time was 120 min, the highest change was observed in the UT group with 450 W (duck breast: 6.15%; duck thigh: 6.18%). When the ultrasound was propagated, extreme pressures were produced, resulting in the disruption of sample structure and the absorption of water[17]. The changes of NaCl (ΔMNaClt) showed a similar trend with ΔMwt. With the increase in marination time, the concentration gradient between duck samples and the salt solution decreased. The higher the ultrasonic power, the faster the rate of NaCl penetration into the samples. The largest changes in NaCl weight were obtained in the group of 450 W. When the marination time was 80 min, compared with the control group (0 W), the value of ΔMNaClt in the 450 W group of duck breast and thigh meat increased by 11.86% and 35.18%, respectively. Deumier et al.[18] and Ozuna et al.[19] reported similar findings that the changes in total, water, and salt weight with UT were higher than those of the non-treated samples because the cavitation effect of ultrasound could promote the penetration of NaCl.

      Figure 1. 

      (a), (b) Total weight changes (ΔM0t), (c), (d) water weight changes (ΔMwt), and (e), (f) NaCl weight changes (ΔMNaClt) in duck breast and thigh samples with different ultrasound treatments.

    • The linear relationship between the weight changes and the square root of time (t0.5) of duck samples under different ultrasonic conditions is shown in Fig. 2. Table 1 displays the fitted equations obtained from the liner relationship (Fig. 2) and the values of mass transfer kinetics parameters (k1 and k2). The coefficient of determination (R2) of the experimental kinetic model achieved percentages of explained variance for the total, moisture, and NaCl weight changes, ranging from 95.6% to 99.8%. These results suggested that this model could be used to well fit the relationship of substances between the mass transfer process and marination time.

      Figure 2. 

      Plot of (a), (b) total weight (ΔM0t), (c), (d) water weight (ΔMwt), and (e), (f) NaCl weight changes (ΔMNaClt) vs the square root of time (t0.5) in duck breast and thigh samples with different ultrasound treatments.

      Table 1.  Kinetic parameters for weight changes (ΔM0t), water weight changes (ΔMwt), and NaCl weight changes (ΔMNaClt) in duck samples with different ultrasound treatments.

      Parameters Meat type Treatments Fitted equation k1 k2 R2
      ΔM0t Duck breast Static marination y = 0.3912x + 0.5712 −0.4288 0.3912 0.987
      150 W y = 0.3910x + 0.9575 −0.0425 0.3910 0.969
      300 W y = 0.4054x + 0.9914 −0.0086 0.4054 0.971
      450 W y = 0.4098x + 1.064 0.0640 0.4098 0.988
      Duck thigh Static marination y = 0.3959x + 0.4646 −0.5354 0.3959 0.956
      150 W y = 0.4014x + 0.8719 −0.1281 0.4014 0.984
      300 W y = 0.4040x + 1.0041 0.0041 0.4040 0.994
      450 W y = 0.4147x + 1.0449 0.0449 0.4157 0.988
      ΔMwt Duck breast Static marination y = 0.4979x − 0.1329 −1.1329 0.4979 0.998
      150 W y = 0.5336x − 0.1595 −1.1595 0.5336 0.993
      300 W y = 0.5598x − 0.1953 −1.1953 0.5598 0.982
      450 W y = 0.5813x − 0.1632 −1.1632 0.5813 0.993
      Duck thigh Static marination y = 0.4620x − 0.0840 −1.0840 0.4620 0.988
      150 W y = 0.4638x + 0.2714 −0.7286 0.4638 0.992
      300 W y = 0.5068x + 0.3058 −0.6942 0.5068 0.974
      450 W y = 0.5711x − 0.057 −1.0571 0.5711 0.999
      ΔMNaClt Duck breast
      Static marination y = 0.0659x − 0.0128 −1.0128 0.0659 0.996
      150 W y = 0.0733x − 0.0450 −1.0530 0.0733 0.991
      300 W y = 0.0733x − 0.0199 −1.0043 0.0733 0.989
      450 W y = 0.0755x − 0.0240 −0.9708 0.0755 0.997
      Duck thigh
      Static marination y = 0.0590x + 0.0171 −0.9829 0.0590 0.996
      150 W y = 0.0602x + 0.0427 −0.9573 0.0602 0.964
      300 W y = 0.0700x − 0.0071 −1.0071 0.0700 0.965
      450 W y = 0.0789x − 0.0125 −1.0125 0.0789 0.979

      The k1 value describes the behavior at the beginning of the mass transfer, which is related to the salt concentration and hydrodynamic mechanism[14]. The k2 value is associated with the kinetics of the diffusion mechanism and the product yield and reflects the increase of total, water and NaCl weight and mass transfer diffusion efficiency[20]. As shown in Table 1, the k1 values of ΔM0t improved along with ultrasonic power increasing. When the ultrasonic power reached 450 W, k1 exhibited the maximum values (duck breast: 0.0640; duck thigh: 0.0449). But for ΔMwt and ΔMNaClt, the k1 values of duck thigh showed an increasing and then decreasing trend with increasing ultrasonic power and the maximum values were obtained by 150 W (ΔMwt: −0.6942; ΔMNaClt: −0.9573). As for k2, the values of duck breast meat were gradually improved with the increase of ultrasonic power. The UT group with 450 W possessed maximum values of ΔM0t (0.4098), ΔMwt (0.5813) and ΔMNaClt (0.0755), demonstrating that ultrasound treatment could improve the diffusion efficiency of mass transfer. These results were in accordance with Zhao et al.[21]. The k2 values of duck thigh samples showed a similar trend to breast meat. When the ultrasonic power was 450 W, the k2 values of ΔM0t (0.4157) and ΔMNaClt (0.0789) were maximum and higher than that of the breast samples, indicating that meat type could influence the marination efficiency.

    • The NaCl content of duck breast and thigh meat at the equilibrium of marination could be calculated by the above-mentioned Eqn (5) as 2.633% and 2.629%, respectively. According to Fick’s second law equation, the 1YNaClt values plotted versus t0.5 and the De and K values are shown in Fig. 3 and Table 2, respectively. The coefficient of determination (R2) of the NaCl transport model achieved percentages of explained variance for De, ranging from 95.0% to 99.6%. A time-independent constant K was introduced to adjust the deviation from the coordinate origin in case of any effect of mass transfer phenomena occurring at the beginning of marination[15,22]. During marination, salt diffusion efficiency (De) of meat products is linked to mass transfer resistance, which is mainly affected by the structural changes of muscle bundle[6]. As shown in Table 2, the De values of the control group in duck breast and thigh were 0.9472 × 10−9 m2/s and 0.7889 × 10−9 m2/s, respectively. The value of De improved with the increasing ultrasonic power, and the highest De value was obtained under 450 W treatment. Compared with the control group, the values of duck breast (1.2337 × 10−9 m2/s) and thigh (1.3775 × 10−9 m2/s) increased by 30.25% and 74.61%, respectively. These results suggested that ultrasonic treatment could significantly improve the De values of duck breast and thigh samples[23].

      Figure 3. 

      Reduced driving force (1YNaClt) vs t0.5/l in (a) duck breast, and (b) thigh samples with different ultrasound treatments.

      Table 2.  Modeling of NaCl transport in duck breast and thigh with different ultrasound treatments.

      Parameters Meat type Treatments De (×10−9 m2/s) K R2
      Duck breast Static marination y = 0.0269x − 0.2275 0.9472 −0.2275 0.996
      150 W y = 0.0305x − 0.2495 1.2177 −0.2495 0.976
      300 W y = 0.0307x − 0.2454 1.2337 −0.2454 0.988
      450 W y = 0.0311x − 0.2339 1.2661 −0.2339 0.996
      Duck thigh Static marination y = 0.02455x − 0.2162 0.7889 −0.2162 0.982
      150 W y = 0.02469x − 0.1976 0.7979 −0.1976 0.955
      300 W y = 0.02903x − 0.2345 1.1031 −0.2345 0.950
      450 W y = 0.03244x − 0.2294 1.3775 −0.2294 0.976
    • Compared to duck breast meat, duck thigh meat had lower shear stress, indicating a tender meat structure (Fig. 4). Hudaet al.[24] found the same results in that the texture of the breast part was tougher than the thigh in both Peking and Muscovy duck. The shear stress of duck breast meat was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) from 12.90 to 10.03 N along with ultrasonic power increasing from 0 to 450 W. While for duck thigh meat, the 300 W and 450 W ultrasonic-treated samples exhibited similar (p > 0.05) shear stress (8.93 and 8.49 N, respectively), indicating a similar tenderness. It is also observed that the 300 W (10.71 N) and higher power ultrasonic-treated breast samples exhibit even lower shear stress than static marinated thigh meat (10.96 N). This suggested that the ultrasonic-treatment could not only accelerate the marination rate but also show a tenderization effect, which is in accordance with Zou et al.[7]. Previous studies have pointed out that the meat tenderness increased with power enhancement due to two main reasons: 1) helping to release tenderizing enzymes by disrupting lysosomes, and thus undermining aligned muscle structure; 2) expanding spaces between myofibrils and accelerating brine solution permeation[25,26].

      Figure 4. 

      Effects of different ultrasound treatments on (a) shear force, (b) drip loss and, (c) cooking loss of duck breast and thigh samples. Note: the letters a-d above the bars indicate the significant difference between samples within same muscle type (p < 0.05).

    • Drip loss, as one of the most important factors, is closely related to poultry texture and storage quality. The effect of ultrasonic power on the drip loss of marinated duck breast and thigh is shown in Fig. 4. It is suggested that for the breast meat, the drip loss gradually decreased along with the power increasing. The lowest drip loss (2.79%) is in the 450 W sonicated samples. This is because the ultrasound could enhance NaCl to transfer into the muscle bundle (as shown in the salt mass transfer results), thus leading more salt-soluble protein to dissolve into extracellular space, trapping more free water in the system. Pan et al.[27] also found the reduced drip loss of porcine muscle was attributed to protein hydration generated by ultrasonic-induced mild oxidation.

      For the thigh meat, although the drip loss decreased from 3.21% to 2.70% when the power increases from 0 to 450 W, the 150 W and 300 W treated samples exhibited similar values (p > 0.05), suggesting a comparable water holding capacity during storage. A previous study has mentioned that the ultrasonic treatment could promote the salt-soluble protein to be released from muscle fiber[26] . The drip loss presented in this work is higher (~3%) than other studies reported in ultrasonic marinated pork and chicken meat (~1% to 2%)[26,27], which is probably induced by different meat species and brine solution composition.

    • The cooking loss of meat can reflect the yield of final meat product, which is generally considered to decide their economic values. In addition, the meat samples exhibited greater water holding capacity during heating often showed better juiciness, higher tenderness, and improved acceptance for consumers[28]. The results of the cooking loss of duck breast and thigh meat are shown in Fig. 4. As shown, the trends of cooking loss affected by ultrasonic power are pretty similar to drip loss. For duck breast meat, the cooking loss greatly reduced from 33.21% to 27.37% under 120 min marination time while increasing ultrasonic power from 0 to 450 W, indicating a much higher production yield (raising 5.84%). This is possibly because the ultrasonic wave destroyed the muscle structure of the breast meat, promoting the dissolution of salt-soluble protein which enriched on the surface and prevented water extrusion from the system[29].

      For duck thigh meat, the 0, 150, and 300 W sonicated meat samples exhibited cooking loss with no significant difference (p > 0.05). The 450 W treated duck thigh meat showed lowest cooking loss (24.01%) compared to all other groups. As reported previously, the breast meat of poultry obtained thicker muscle fiber and larger cross-sectional area compared to leg meat[30]. Therefore, it is assumed that the ultrasonic wave would show a more significant effect on breast meat, while the salt-soluble protein could more easily be dissolved from thigh meat fiber, thus less affected by ultrasonic treatment.

    • The insights of ultrasonic-assisted marination on the water distribution of duck breast and thigh meat were analyzed by using LF-NMR. Through observing the exchange behavior between water proteins and protein-contained protons, the mobility of water within poultry meat muscle could be evaluated[6,31]. The proton transverse relaxation time T2 can be normalized into three populations: 1) T21: ranging from 1.4 to 2.2 ms in this study, representing the bound water, which is closely restrained by proteins though hydrogen bonds or other molecular forces; 2) T22: ranging from 52.2 to 67.1 ms, which refers to immobilized water that existed around epimysium, perimysium, and endomysium; and 3) T23: referring to free water ranging from 428.4 to 635.2 ms, which is freely expelled from muscle cell and distributed around the meat surface.

      According to Figs 5 & 6, the T2 of duck breast was more significantly affected by ultrasonic marination compared to duck thigh, which is consistent with the results of drip loss and cooking loss. For duck breast, the T21 and T22 were shortened by ultrasonic treatment, especially 450 W treated samples. It indicated that the mobility of bound water in muscle was lowered by higher ultrasonic power. A study in pork tenderloin has shown a similar reduction trend of T21 when cured under ultrasound and glycerol mediation[32]. The T23 was prolonged in 300 W and 450 W sonicated samples, which indicated the freedom and flow ability of the free water was enhanced. This could partially be due to more salt penetration leading to osmotic pressure.

      Figure 5. 

      (a), (b) Transverse relaxation time of water, and (c), (d) water proportion in three states of duck breast and thigh samples with different ultrasound treatments. Note: the letters a−d above the bars indicate the significant difference between samples within same muscle type (p < 0.05).

      Figure 6. 

      The dynamic changes of transverse relaxation time (T2) of (a) duck breast, and (b) thigh samples with different ultrasound treatments.

      It could be seen that the static marinated thigh meat obtained shorter T22 than breast meat, indicating the immobilized water could be more tightly bound by the muscle system in the duck leg. This could be attributed to the wider distance between muscle fibers in breast meat. The T21 of duck thigh was not affected by ultrasonic treatment. Compared to 0 W and 150 W treatment samples, the 300 W and 450 W sonicated duck thigh exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) longer T22, which is consistent with the change trends of duck breast. Guo et al.[33] have also verified that the free water relaxation time T22 of pork would significantly increase during marination, which was attributed to the infiltration of marinade into the surface layer of muscle cells.

    • The content of different kinds of water proportion is shown in Fig. 5 as P21 (bound water), P22 (immobilized water) and P23 (free water). After marination, the major component of water in the muscle system is immobilized water. For duck breast meat, it is seen that only 450 W ultrasonic treatment would lead to significant lower P21 and higher P22 (p > 0.05), and other groups exhibited similar values (p < 0.05).

      Combined with T2 changes trends, it is indicated that the bound water in chicken breast meat could be transferred to immobilized water with great binding ability by ultrasound, which is then well distributed in extra-myofibril space and potentially restrained by capillary force. The 450 W treated group also exhibited the lowest P22, indicating a reduction of free water and thus a better water retention capacity. A previous study in pork meatball reached a similar conclusion, that the 450 W assisted cooking could significantly lower the proportion of free water[34]. The ultrasonic treatment could lower the content of free water, which indicated a better water holding capacity. This result is consistent with changes in drip loss and cooking loss.

    • The present study revealed how ultrasonic-assisted marination affects the quality of duck breast and thigh meat. The results showed that ultrasonic treatment significantly influenced the mass transfer kinetics during the marination process. With the increase of ultrasonic power, the changes of total weight, moisture content, and NaCl content continuously increased. The maximum effective diffusion coefficient (De) of duck breast and thigh meat was both obtained with the power of 450 W. Compared with static marination, UT could accelerate the marination process and shorten the marination time from 120 min (0 W) to 80 min (450 W) for achieving similar salt content. The ultrasonic treatment could not only accelerate marination rate, but also showed a tenderizing effect. The reduction of drip loss and cooking loss represented the improvement of water holding capacity of duck samples and corresponded with the weight changes of NaCl. The distribution of water analysis confirmed the reduction of water loss with ultrasonic treatment, indicated by the decrease in relaxation times T22. Overall, ultrasonic-assisted marination is a potential alternative for accelerating the efficiency of brining and improving meat quality.

    • The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: methodology, data curation: Shao J, Ding R, Zhao X; formal analysis, writing - original draft: Shao J; supervision, validation: Sheng C; funding acquisition: Sheng C, Zhao X; conceptualization, supervision: Xu X; project administration, writing - review & editing: Zhao X. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

    • The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

      • This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (ZJ22195010), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution (PAPD).

      • The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

      • # Authors contributed equally: Jiaqi Shao, Rui Ding

      • Copyright: © 2024 by the author(s). Published by Maximum Academic Press on behalf of Nanjing Agricultural University. This article is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
    Figure (6)  Table (2) References (34)
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    Shao J, Ding R, Sheng C, Xu X, Zhao X. 2024. Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat. Food Materials Research 4: e019 doi: 10.48130/fmr-0024-0010
    Shao J, Ding R, Sheng C, Xu X, Zhao X. 2024. Effects of ultrasonic assisted marination on the mass transfer kinetics and quality of low-salt duck breast and thigh meat. Food Materials Research 4: e019 doi: 10.48130/fmr-0024-0010

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