AUTHOR=Nguyen Loan T. , Reverter Antonio , Cánovas Angela , Venus Bronwyn , Anderson Stephen T. , Islas-Trejo Alma , Dias Marina M. , Crawford Natalie F. , Lehnert Sigrid A. , Medrano Juan F. , Thomas Milt G. , Moore Stephen S. , Fortes Marina R. S. TITLE=STAT6, PBX2, and PBRM1 Emerge as Predicted Regulators of 452 Differentially Expressed Genes Associated With Puberty in Brahman Heifers JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2018.00087 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2018.00087 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=
The liver plays a central role in metabolism and produces important hormones. Hepatic estrogen receptors and the release of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) are critical links between liver function and the reproductive system. However, the role of liver in pubertal development is not fully understood. To explore this question, we applied transcriptomic analyses to liver samples of pre- and post-pubertal Brahman heifers and identified differentially expressed (DE) genes and genes encoding transcription factors (TFs). Differential expression of genes suggests potential biological mechanisms and pathways linking liver function to puberty. The analyses identified 452 DE genes and 82 TF with significant contribution to differential gene expression by using a regulatory impact factor metric. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor was observed as the most down-regulated gene (