High-moisture corn feeding in Kazakh rams is associated with upregulation of muscle metabolic pathways involved in fatty acid synthesis, including the TCA cycle, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and taurine metabolism, leading to increased intramuscular fat deposition.

When rams eat high-moisture corn, their gut breaks down the starch into propionate, which the liver turns into citrate. Citrate moves into muscle cells and gets split to make acetyl-CoA, the building block for fat. At the same time, the body makes more coenzyme A, which activates fatty acids so they can be stitched together into triglycerides and stored in muscle. Taurine helps bring more fatty acids into the muscle and keeps them from breaking down, while branched-chain amino acids add extra carbon to fuel fat production. Together, these processes pack more fat inside the muscle.