USDA-ARS, Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Powder Mill, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. tony.capuco@ars.usda.gov
The presence of mammary glands is the defining morphological feature of mammals. The recent assembly of the bovine genome and a report in Genome Biology that links the milk and lactation data of bovine and other mammalian genomes will help biologists investigate this economically and medically important feature.