To investigate the effect of NRF2 on ferroptosis and beef color stability during post-mortem maturation， the longest dorsal muscle of cattle was used as the research object in this experiment. It was treated with 0.9% physiological saline， 0.5 mmol/L ML385， and 1 mmol/L tBHQ injection， and matured at 4 ℃ for 0， 24， 72， 168 hours， respectively. The expression level of NRF2， changes in iron homeostasis， expression of ferroptosis-related proteins， lipid oxidation， mitochondrial membrane potential， beef color， and other related indicators were analyzed. The research results showed that during the maturation period， the expression and mRNA levels of NRF2 in the ML385 treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group， while the opposite was true in the tBHQ group， indicating that ML385 and tBHQ had significant inhibitory and activating effects on NRF2. Compared with the control group， the ML385 group showed a significant increase in iron deposition levels (P<0.05)， and the protein expression levels of FPN1， SLC7A11， and PRDX6 were significantly downregulated (P<0.05). After maturation， the contents of Fe2+， MDA， and b* increased by 10.56%， 16.67%， and 53.78%， respectively， while the tBHQ group decreased by 8.39%， 21.76%， and 30.26% compared with the control group. The mitochondrial membrane potential， pH， Mb content， GPX4， MRA， NADH oxidase activity， and a* value in the ML385 group were significantly reduced by 5.31%， 3.62%， 7.45%， 28.32%， 24.10%， 2.76%， and 12.1% respectively compared with the control group， whereas those in the tBHQ group increased by 15.96%， 1.11%， 30.73%， 8.69%， 3.96%， 7.39%， and 5.68% respectively compared with the control group. For L* values， both the ML385 group and tBHQ group were higher than the control group in summary， during the post-mortem maturation period， NRF2 regulates ferroptosis by maintaining muscle tissue iron homeostasis， inhibiting lipid peroxidation， and affecting mitochondrial membrane potential， thereby affecting Mb content and MRA to improve beef color stability.

NRF2  /  ferroptosis  /  iron homeostasis  /  lipid peroxidation  /  beef color stability