Transcriptomic analysis of two sheep breeds during lactation, using a new custom microarray platform

We aim at understanding the genomic influence on milk quality and synthesis by comparing two sheep breeds using sheep-specific microarray technology. From sheep ESTs deposited at NCBI we generated a chip carrying about 22,000 non-redundant features in quadruplicate, achieving very good technical outcomes. Oligos were in situ generated on chip using the Combimatrix equipment. We analysed the mammary transcriptome in individuals of two sheep breeds at two lactation stages, to identify genes controlling milk production and metabolic pathways in which these genes are involved. With |FC|>1.4, and p-value≤0.05, 142 and 14 genes resulted differentially expressed in stages 01 and 02, respectively.