Abstract: Tenderness is a key attribute that affecting consumers’ willingness to buy meat. Many scientific articles summarize the factors affecting the tenderness of meat. However, the effect of peroxiredoxin 6 (Prdx6) on meat tenderness and the underlying mechanism are rarely reported. After slaughter, the physiological environment of skeletal muscles changes, resulting in the production of more cellular reactive oxygen species and breaking redox homeostasis and survival/apoptosis balance. These changes are closely related to meat tenderness. Therefore, this article reviews the current research on the effect of Prdx6 on scavenging reactive oxygen species and repairing peroxidized cell membrane, and its relationship with meat tenderness. In addition, it summarizes the mechanisms by which Prdx6 affects meat tenderness including regulating protein and lipid oxidation, cell apoptosis, the expression of small heat shock protein and autophagy as well as reducing phospholipid peroxide membrane, and it clarifies the related pathways. This review will enrich the current knowledge of the mechanism of meat tenderization.

Key words: peroxiredoxin 6; tenderness; oxidative stress; apoptosis