In our research project, we compared the different types of meat of three different birds. We did protein gel analysis on duck, chicken, and turkey muscle samples. From each bird we took a sample of leg (lighter meat) and breast (darker meat) to run. We hypothesized that the samples of dark and light meat within the same bird would look noticeably different, and that the type of meat would have similar runs as the same type in a different bird. What our gels indicated was that the type of meat did not have a significant change in protein content. Wells between the same bird were identical, but the wells between the three different birds were very slightly different. This refuted our hypothesis and allowed us to make conclusions about muscle structure in terms of type. We conclude that since slow twitch uses oxygen for fuel, and since they share the same structure as fast twitch, hemoglobin concentration must be what makes the meat red or dark, and would account for the extra oxygen the muscle needs. This also makes sense that duck meat is darker than turkey and chicken, because they fly much further distances.
An error that we experienced is the size of our samples. Since there was a small amount of smearing in our gels, and we believe that was the source. This can make the gel harder to read and determine lengths. A way we could have prevented this is being more cautious and measuring the sample with a ruler, making sure it is .25 cm cubed. Another error we experienced was in our pipetting in our second well. Some of sample 6 got into the Actin Myosin Standard well, and a large band at the beginning of the well can be seen. This resulted in a hard to see AM standard, and a less concentrated sample 6. While these errors did not have a very large effect, they made our wells harder to see and view, and makes our analysis a little bit weaker than it could have been.
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