About the Authors

Xuewen Xu

Current Address: Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, PR China

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Fabien Ectors

Affiliation Transgenic platform, FARAH and GIGA Research Center, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Erica E. Davis

Current Address: Center for Human Disease Modeling and Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Dimitri Pirottin

Current Address: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, GIGA-Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Huijun Cheng

Current Address: Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, PR China

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Frédéric Farnir

Affiliation Unit of Biostatistics, FARAH and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Boulevard de Colonster, Liège, Belgium

Tracy Hadfield

Affiliation Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary sciences, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America

Noelle Cockett

Affiliation Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary sciences, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America

Carole Charlier

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Michel Georges

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Haruko Takeda

htakeda@ulg.ac.be

Affiliation Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Research Center and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l’Hôpital, Liège, Belgium

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XX EED CC MG HT. Performed the experiments: XX FE EED DP HC HT. Analyzed the data: XX EED FF CC MG HT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FF TH NC. Wrote the paper: XX MG HT.