Quantitative proteomics provides new insights into the mechanism underlying textural property improvement in frankfurters by ultrasound treatment combined with κ-carrageenan

This study aimed to reveal the potential mechanism by which ultrasound (US) treatment combined with κ-carrageenan (KC) enhances the textural properties of frankfurters via label-free quantitative proteomics techniques. The results showed that compared with the individual application of US or KC, US combined with KC (US + KC) significantly enhanced the textural properties and decreased the cooking loss of frankfurters (P < 0.05) as well as led to a denser and more compact protein network. Moreover, quantitative proteomics analysis indicated that the US, KC, and US + KC groups had 241, 178, and 211 differentially expressed proteins compared with control group, respectively. Meanwhile, bioinformatic analyses based on Gene Ontology enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment, and protein–protein interactions demonstrated that the differentially expressed proteins were primarily structural proteins and metabolic enzymes. Furthermore, correlation analyses between differentially expressed proteins and textural indicators revealed that 26 differentially expressed proteins were significantly correlated with changes in the textural properties of frankfurters. In particular, myosin heavy chain 7, cytochrome oxidase subunit 6C, and neuron-derived neurotrophic factor may be considered primary markers for determining the final textural properties of frankfurters. Therefore, the present work revealed a crucial mechanism by which different treatments (US, KC, and US + KC) elicit changes in the textural properties of frankfurters from a proteomic perspective.