JIOMICS

JIOMICS | VOL 5 | ISSUE 2 | DECEMBER 2015 | 1-62
JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED OMICS
Journal of Integrated Omics
A METHODOLOGICAL JOURNAL
HTTP://WWW.JIOMICS.COM
Special Issue: Proceeding Abstracts of the 4 th International Congress on Analytical Proteomics (ICAP 2015)
Differential expression of egg white proteins in different breeds of chickens
and their association with physical characteristics of hard-boiled eggs
S. Y. Huang* 1,2,3,4 S. C. Liu 1 , C. Y. Wu 5 , C. J. Chen 6,7 , Y. P. Lee 1 , C. F. Chen 1,2,3 , J. C. Peng 5 , F. J. Tan 1
1
Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan. 2 Agricultural Biotechnology Center, National
Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan. 3 Center for the Integrative and Evolutionary Galliformes Genomics, iEGG Center, National
Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan. 4 Center of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung
40227, Taiwan. 5 Department of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.
6
Proteomics Core Laboratory, Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan. 7 Graduate
Institute of Integrated Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan. *Corresponding author: syhuang@dragon.nchu.edu.tw
Available Online: 31 December 2015
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the differential expression of egg white proteins in different breeds of chickens and
their association with physical characteristics of hard-boiled eggs.
Experimental description: Fresh eggs collected from 31-wk-old ISA Brown, L2 strain Taiwan country chickens (L2 strain TCCs), and Quemoy
chickens, were stored at room temperature (25-26ºC) for 3 days before further analysis. The eggs were subjected to measuring general
traits and physical characteristics of hard-boiled eggs evaluation, including texture profile analysis, stress relaxation, breaking test, and puncture
test. The egg white were used for proteomic analysis.
Results: The general egg traits showed that eggs from ISA Brown had higher egg weight, egg length, and egg width than those of L2 strain
TCCs and Quemoy chickens (P < 0.05). The egg shape index, yolk weight, albumin height, and Haugh unit did not differ among breeds. The
physical characteristics of hard-boiled eggs in L2 strain TCCs showed higher hardness, fracturability, gumminess, chewiness, puncture value,
viscoelasticity, and toughness than those of the other two breeds (P < 0.05). The levels of 16 out of 124 quantified protein spots differed significantly
among the three breeds (P < 0.05). Fifteen of the differed protein spots were successfully identified by peptide mass fingerprinting and
represented 7 distinct proteins, including Hep21 protein precursor, ovoinhibitor, ovalbumin related protein X, ovalbumin, ovotransferrin,
serum albumin, and phosphoglucomutase-1. The levels of one and three ovotransferrin spots in L2 strain TCCs were significantly higher than
those in ISA Brown and Quemoy chickens. Pearson correlation further showed that the level of ovotransferrin was highly positive-correlated
with most of the physical characteristics of hard-boiled eggs.
Conclusions: The result of this study suggested that the reason why the eggs of L2 strain TCCs have better physical characteristics of hardboiled
eggs may result from the higher level of ovotransferrin in their egg white.
Keywords: Chicken eggs, Egg white proteins, Physical characteristics, Hard-boiled eggs.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Taiwan (under the ATU plan) for financial support of
this study.
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