About the Authors

Matthew C. McClure

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Derek Bickhart

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Dan Null

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Paul VanRaden

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Lingyang Xu

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

George Wiggans

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

George Liu

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Steve Schroeder

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Jarret Glasscock

Affiliation Cofactor Genomics, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Jon Armstrong

Affiliation Cofactor Genomics, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

John B. Cole

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Curtis P. Van Tassell

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Tad S. Sonstegard

Tad.sonstegard@ars.usda.gov

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

JG is CEO and JA is COO for Cofactor Genomics (both being founders/owners of Cofactor Genomics). There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TSS MCM PV CPVT. Performed the experiments: MCM DB DN JG JA. Analyzed the data: MCM DB DN PV LX GW GL SS JG JA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JG JA TSS CPVT. Wrote the paper: TSS MCM PV JBC.