Advancing Meat Quality Through Genetic and Nutritional Insights
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Products".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 2988
Editors
Interests: meat science; meat quality; animal growth and development; muscle biology; animal science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: beef production; beef nutrition; heat stress; management; precision technology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Meat quality is a multifactorial trait governed by the interaction of genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors, which collectively determine muscle phenotypes at the moment of harvest and drive the biochemical, structural, and physicochemical transformations that occur during the conversion of muscle into meat. Advances in molecular and quantitative genetics have facilitated the identification of critical loci, gene networks, and regulatory mechanisms that govern muscle-specific traits, providing insights for genomic selection and precision breeding strategies to improve meat quality. At the same time, the interaction between production efficiency and quality traits highlights the need for integrative approaches that combine genetic, physiological, and nutritional perspectives to optimize both performance and the structural, biochemical, and sensory attributes of meat. Nutrition offers important dynamic opportunities to influence meat quality by modulating muscle growth and development, energy metabolism, and carcass composition. Beyond meeting basic requirements for growth, dietary strategies can optimize energy mobilization, lipid profiles, and antioxidant capacity, thereby shaping visual and sensory properties of meat. Functional feeds, such as fatty acid supplementation, plant-derived bioactives, and antioxidant compounds, have been explored for their potential to improve product quality and sustainability. This highlights the role of nutrition not only as a management strategy but also as a driver of biochemical pathways critical to meat quality outcomes.
This Special Issue, "Advancing Meat Quality Through Genetic and Nutritional Insights", explores how genetic and nutritional insights can advance mechanistic understanding and drive practical innovation in meat quality. By integrating molecular biology, metabolism, and applied production strategies, this Issue aims to enhance product consistency, consumer satisfaction, and the long-term resilience of animal agriculture.
Dr. Mariane Beline
Dr. Barbara Roqueto dos Reis
Dr. Sabrina Amorim
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- animal genomics
- carcass composition
- fetal programming
- meat quality
- muscle energy metabolism
- nutrition strategies
- selection strategies
- sustainability
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