Whole blood transcriptional profiling comparison between different milk yield of Chinese Holstein cows using RNA-seq data

摘要

Background The objective of this research was to investigate the variation of gene expression in the blood transcriptome profile of Chinese Holstein cows associated to the milk yield traits. Results We used RNA-seq to generate the bovine transcriptome from the blood of 23 lactating Chinese Holstein cows with extremely high and low milk yield. A total of 100 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) ( p Conclusion This study provides a non-invasive method to identify the DEGs in cattle blood using RNA-seq for milk yield. The revealed 100 DEGs between Holstein cows with extremely high and low milk yield, and immunological pathway are likely involved in milk yield trait. Finally, this study allowed us to explore associations between immune traits and production traits related to milk production.