About the Authors

Takashi Hirano

t3hirano@nodai.ac.jp

Affiliations Shirakawa Institute of Animal Genetics, Fukushima, Japan, Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Kanagawa, Japan

Naohiko Kobayashi

Affiliation Hida Beef Cattle Research Department, Gifu Prefectural Livestock Research Institute, Gifu, Japan

Tamako Matsuhashi

Affiliation Hida Beef Cattle Research Department, Gifu Prefectural Livestock Research Institute, Gifu, Japan

Daisaku Watanabe

Affiliation School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Kitasato University, Aomori, Japan

Toshio Watanabe

Affiliation National Livestock Breeding Center, Fukushima, Japan

Akiko Takasuga

Affiliation National Livestock Breeding Center, Fukushima, Japan

Mayumi Sugimoto

Affiliation National Livestock Breeding Center, Fukushima, Japan

Yoshikazu Sugimoto

Affiliation Shirakawa Institute of Animal Genetics, Fukushima, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TH YS. Performed the experiments: TH AT MS YS. Analyzed the data: TH MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TH NK TM DW TW. Wrote the paper: TH TW YS.