About the Authors

Lifan Zhang

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Michelle R. Mousel

Affiliation USDA/ARS US Sheep Experiment Station, Dubois, Idaho, United States of America

Xiaolin Wu

Affiliation Department of Dairy Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Jennifer J. Michal

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Xiang Zhou

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Bo Ding

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Michael V. Dodson

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Nermin K. El-Halawany

Affiliation Cell Biology Department, Division of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Research Center, Dokki, Gueza, Egypt

Gregory S. Lewis

Affiliation USDA/ARS US Sheep Experiment Station, Dubois, Idaho, United States of America

Zhihua Jiang

jiangz@wsu.edu

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ZJ MRM GSL. Performed the experiments: JJM MRM. Analyzed the data: LFZ XLW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MRM GSL JJM XZ BD MVD NKE. Wrote the paper: LFZ ZJ MRM GSL.