Fig. 1

eQTL map. The y-axis represents the absolute genomic position of the gene and the x-axis represents the genomic location of its associated SNP marker. Associations aligning on the diagonal are eQTL found on the same chromosome as the gene. A plausible position range was identified for each eQTL interval based on the peak’s flanking markers, and local regulation was determined when the gene position overlapped this range, shown in black. Plausible local regulators of gene expression (described in Figure S1 in Additional file 2) are shown in yellow. The eQTL intervals shown in green are distant regulators that map to the same chromosome as their associated gene. Distant regulators mapping to a different chromosome than the associated gene are shown in blue. The eQTL shown in red are plausible putative hotspots on SSC9 and SSC15