Untargeted Metabolomic Profiling Identifies Breed-Specific Metabolomic Signatures in the Longissimus Dorsi Meat of Beichuan White Goats and Tianfu Goats

Background: Local goat resources have unique meat quality and phenotypic advantages over cultivated breeds. Clarifying breed-specific metabolic differences in meat helps understand meat quality formation and resource utilization. Methods: the study used ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) technology to perform untargeted metabolomic analysis on the longissimus dorsi meat of Beichuan White goats (BCWG) and Tianfu goats (TMG). Results: A total of 452 differential metabolites were identified between the two breeds, including 100 lipids and lipid-like molecules, 74 organic acids and their derivatives, 12 nucleosides, nucleotides, and analogues, 204 organic compounds, and 62 unclassified metabolites. Among them, 132 metabolites exhibited higher abundance in Beichuan White goats and 320 metabolites showed significantly higher abundance in Tianfu goats. Metabolomic profiling revealed that differential metabolites of lipids and amino acids (e.g., valine and glutamate) might be correlated with interbreed disparities in meat sensory quality and flavor, as indicated by metabolomic profiling. BCWG displayed relatively higher abundances of nucleoside and nucleotide metabolites, which might hint at a possible link to variations in disease-resistance capacity. Among the 12 nucleoside and nucleotide differential metabolites, UDP-N-acetylglucosamine, 1-methyllinosine, 1-methylguanosine, 3-methylcytidine, and N-(2-Furanylmethyl) adenosine could serve as candidate molecular indicators for studying immune-related traits in goats. Conclusions: The study clarifies the breed-specific metabolic characteristics of the longissimus dorsi meat in BCWG and TMG at the metabolite level, provides novel molecular markers for chevon quality evaluation and immune trait selection, and lays a theoretical foundation for the rational development and utilization of local goat resources and improvement of cultivated meat goat breeds.