About the Authors

Shifang Zhang

Contributed equally to this work with: Shifang Zhang, Fuping Zhao

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Fuping Zhao

Contributed equally to this work with: Shifang Zhang, Fuping Zhao

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Caihong Wei

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Xihui Sheng

Affiliations National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, College of Animal Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China

Hangxing Ren

Affiliations National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, Chongqing Academy of Animal Sciences, Chongqing, China

Lingyang Xu

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Jian Lu

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Jiasen Liu

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Li Zhang

lxdu@263.net (LD); zhangli@263.net (LZ)

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Lixin Du

lxdu@263.net (LD); zhangli@263.net (LZ)

Affiliation National Center for Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Animal, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SFZ LZ LXD. Performed the experiments: SFZ CHW XHS HXR LXD. Analyzed the data: SFZ LYX JL LZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SFZ FPZ JSL LXD. Wrote the paper: SFZ LXD.