Table 4. Abundance and differential expression of the highly abundant caprine miRNAs in the mammary gland.

miRNA name	D	P	D-NE	P-NE	Fold-change log2 P-NE/D-NE	P-value	Sig-label
miR-2887	385	1671	25.9235	106.3458	2.0364	4.3E−175	**
miR-451	749	1665	50.433	105.964	1.0711	1.25E−68	**
miR-2478	869	1888	58.5131	120.1561	1.0381	8.41E−74	**
miR-199b	1565	290	105.3774	18.4562	−2.5134	3E−227	**
miR-128	8512	1408	573.1456	89.608	−2.6772	0	**
miR-25	36578	5728	2462.937	364.5414	−2.7563	0	**
miR-145	41213	6254	2775.029	398.0171	−2.8016	0	**
miR-98	2531	370	170.4219	23.5475	−2.8555	0	**
miR-222	5223	734	351.6846	46.7132	−2.9124	0	**
miR-181b	5330	734	358.8893	46.7132	−2.9416	0	**
miR-199a-3p	152691	20829	10281.27	1325.6	−2.9553	0	**
miR-93	3593	460	241.9305	29.2753	−3.0468	0	**
miR-221	7848	790	528.4359	50.2772	−3.3938	0	**
let-7b	443620	32993	29870.63	2099.741	−3.8304	0	**
let-7c	341112	27377	22968.38	1742.327	−3.7206	0	**

P and P-NE represent the actual sequencing count and normalized expression level of miRNAs in the small RNA library generated from the mammary gland during peak lactation, respectively.

D and D-NE represent the actual sequencing count and normalized expression level of miRNAs in the small RNA library generated from the mammary gland during the dry period, respectively.

Fold-change [log₂ (P-NE/D-NE)] indicates the fold change of the miRNAs in a pair of samples.

The P-value reflects the significance of the miRNA differential between the samples. A smaller P-value indicates a more significant difference in the miRNA level between samples.

A sig-label of ** indicates a fold-change (log2)>1 or (log2)<-1 and a P-value<0.01.