The bovine mammary transcriptome: functional adaptation of the mammary gland during the lactation cycle

Bovine mammary gland provide the largest amount of milk for dairy industry to date. Insight in functional adaptation of this organ is critical in order to improve efficiency of milk synthesis and milk quality. In the present experiment microarray analysis in combination with bioinformatics tools was performed in mammary tissue from 8 Holstein cows during the entire lactation cycle. The mammary biopsy was performed at -30, -15, 1, 15, 30, 60, 120, 240, and 300 days (d) relative to parturition. A dye-swap reference design (reference = mixture of RNA from several bovine tissues) was used.