A review of porcine skeletal muscle plasticity and implications for genetic improvement of carcass and meat quality

Skeletal muscle is characterized by a remarkable plasticity to adapt to stimuli such as contractile activity, loading conditions, substrate supply or environmental factors. The existing knowledge of muscle plasticity along with developed genetic and genomic technologies, have enabled creating animal breeding strategies and allowed for implementing agriculturally successful porcine genetic improvement programs. The primary focus of this review paper is on pig skeletal muscle plasticity as it relates to genetic improvement of desirable carcass composition and pork quality traits. Biological constraints between practically realized breeding objectives, pig skeletal muscle biology, and pork quality are also discussed. Future applications of genetic and genomic technologies and plausible focus on new breeding objectives enhancing pork production sustainability are proposed as well.