Abstract: Meat quality is closely related to consumer experience and the benefits of deep processing enterprises, and it is influenced by diverse and complex factors. Recently, the impact of ubiquitination on meat quality has attracted increasing attention, and multiple studies have confirmed its crucial role in meat quality. This paper reviews the literature on the effect of ubiquitination on postmortem muscle energy metabolism, and discusses the potential mechanisms through which ubiquitination affects meat tenderness, color, water-holding capacity, and fat content. Furthermore, it highlights the regulatory mechanisms of protein ubiquitination on meat tenderness in terms of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and the apoptotic pathway. This review is anticipated to enhance the understanding the mechanism through which ubiquitination affects meat quality, thereby laying a theoretical foundation for regulating meat quality through ubiquitination.

Key words: ubiquitination; ubiquitin-proteasome; glycolysis; protein degradation; apoptosis