Adrenal cortex expression data of a German Holstein X Charolaise cross

The importance of the adrenal gland in regard to lactation and reproduction in cattle has been recognized early. Due to consumers interest in animal welfare and the impact of stress on economically important traits in farm animals the adrenal gland and its function within the stress response is still of increasing interest. Especially the molecular mechanisms and pathways that are involved in the stress related effects on economically important traits in farm animals are not studied in full detail. Gene expression is an important mechanism underlying complex traits. Genetic variants affecting the transcript abundance are thought to affect the manifestation of an expressed phenotype. Therefore we investigated the genetic background of adrenocortical gene expression by applying an adaptive linear rank test to identify genome-wide expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) for adrenal cortex transcripts in cattle. Adrenocortical expression-profiling of 147 cows slaughtered at day 30 after parturition in their second lactation