Among them SREBF1, a DE gene identified from KC steers, was found to be an upstream regulator that inhibited 11 target molecules (z-score =  − 2.78), including 3 up-regulated DE genes (DLK1, TF, TTN) and 8 down-regulated DE genes (AACS, ACLY, CIDEA, LDLR, LSS, SERPINE1, SQLE, TM7SF2) in L-RFI as compared to H-RFI KC steers (Supplementary Table S4). The gene discussed is DLK1; the disease is keratoconus.