Wickramasinghe et al. BMC Genomics 2012, 13:45 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/13/45 fellowship at the University of California, Davis. This work was supported by a grant from Dairy Management Inc. number 08 MEJ-01-NH and the California Dairy Research Foundation, and by the U.C. W.Kellog Endowment. Authors’ contributions SW involved in design of study, sample collection, RNA-Seq experiments, acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data and drafting the manuscript. GR involved in design of study, sample collection, analysis and interpretation of data and revising the manuscript. AI involved in sample collection, RNA- Seq experiments and revising the manuscript critically. JFM involved in obtaining funds for the study, design of study, sample collection, interpretation of data and critically revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Received: 12 September 2011 Accepted: 25 January 2012 Published: 25 January 2012 References 1. 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