  Citation: Smili, H.; Becila, S.; della Malva, A.; Redjeb, A.; Albenzio, M.; Sevi, A.; Santillo, A.; Babelhadj, B.; Adamou, A.; Boudjellal, A.; et al. Postmortem Muscle Protein Changes as a Tool for Monitoring Sahraoui Dromedary Meat Quality Characteristics. Foods 2022, 11, 732. https://doi.org/10.3390/ foods11050732 Academic Editor: Baohua Kong Received: 3 February 2022 Accepted: 27 February 2022 Published: 2 March 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). foods Article Postmortem Muscle Protein Changes as a Tool for Monitoring Sahraoui Dromedary Meat Quality Characteristics Hanane Smili 1,2 , Samira Becila 1 , Antonella della Malva 3, * , Ayad Redjeb 2 , Marzia Albenzio 3 , Agostino Sevi 3 , Antonella Santillo 3 , Baaissa Babelhadj 2 , Abdelkader Adamou 2 , Abdelghani Boudjellal 1 and Rosaria Marino 3 1 Equipe Maquav, Laboratoire Bioqual, Institut de la Nutrition de l’Alimentation et des Technologies Agro-Alimentaires (INATAA), Université Frères Mentouri Constantine 1, Route Ain El-Bey, Constantine 25000, Algeria; hanane.smili@umc.edu.dz (H.S.); samira.becila@umc.edu.dz (S.B.); aboudjellal@yahoo.fr (A.B.) 2 Faculté des Sciences de la Nature et de la Vie, Université Kasdi Merbah Ouargla, Ouargla 30000, Algeria; redjeb.ayad@gmail.com (A.R.); babelhadjbaaissa@gmail.com (B.B.); adamoudz@yahoo.fr (A.A.) 3 Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resources and Engineering (DAFNE), University of Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71121 Foggia, Italy; marzia.albenzio@unifg.it (M.A.); agostino.sevi@unifg.it (A.S.); antonella.santillo@unifg.it (A.S.); rosaria.marino@unifg.it (R.M.) * Correspondence: antonella.dellamalva@unifg.it Abstract: The effects of slaughter age (2 vs. 9 years) and postmortem time (6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h) on the meat quality and protein changes of the longissimus lumborum muscles of the Algerian Sahraoui dromedary were investigated. Muscles of young dromedaries evidenced a slower acidification process and a significantly higher myofibrillar fragmentation index throughout the postmortem time. The SDS-PAGE of sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins revealed that meat from young dromedaries was characterized by the lowest percentage of myoglobin (p < 0.001) and the highest percentage of desmin (p < 0.01). During postmortem time, a decrease was found for phosphoglucomutase (p < 0.01), α-actinin (p < 0.05) and desmin (p < 0.01) in meat from young dromedaries. Western blot revealed an intense degradation of troponin T in younger dromedaries, with an earlier appearance of the 28 kDa polypeptide highlighting differences in the proteolytic potential between dromedaries of different ages. Principal component analysis showed that meat from young dromedaries, starting from 24 h postmortem, was located in a zone of the plot characterized by higher levels of the myofibrillar fragmentation index, 30 kDa polypeptide and enolase, overall confirming greater proteolysis in younger animals. Data suggest that the investigation of the muscle proteome is necessary to set targeted interventions to improve the aging process of dromedary meat cuts. Keywords: Sahraoui dromedary; slaughter age; postmortem time; meat quality; myofibrillar pro- tein changes 1. Introduction The camel species present in Algeria is the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius); its global population was estimated to be 416,519 in 2019, thus placing Algeria in the 14th rank worldwide. During the last decade, a growing demand for dromedary meat products has been observed, from 4500 tons in 2009 to 6514 tons in 2019 [1], particularly in harsh arid and semiarid areas where climate negatively impacts the production efficiency of other species. Currently, this production relates to a particular area, due to the natural distribution of the species in addition to socioeconomic aspects. The Sahraoui dromedary population has been relevant for the local economic sustainability of the northern Sahara region of Algeria; the animal is characterized as being rustic, robust and chunky, with high musculature that fits better to drought, transportation and meat production [2]. Dromedary meat is an interesting source of protein that should be exploited at its best, because it yields a heavy Foods 2022, 11, 732. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11050732 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/foods