E2F2 and infection: In addition, the sequencing results revealed that gga-miR-2954 expression was significantly increased in the infection group as compared to the control group and the potential target genes included E2F2, STAB1, and DOK2. To validate the reliability of the miRNA and mRNA expression profiles obtained from the sequencing data, specific miRNA-mRNA pairs were selected for RT-qPCR analysis.