Functional and gene network analyses of transcriptional signatures characterizing pre-weaned bovine mammary parenchyma or fat pad uncovered novel inter-tissue signaling networks during development

摘要

BackgroundThe neonatal bovine mammary fat pad (>MFP) surrounding the mammary parenchyma (>PAR) is thought to exert proliferative effects on the PAR through secretion of local modulators of growth induced by systemic hormones. We used bioinformatics to characterize transcriptomics differences between PAR and MFP from ~65 d old Holstein heifers. Data were mined to uncover potential crosstalk through the analyses of signaling molecules preferentially expressed in one tissue relative to the other.