title: Reference gene selection for quantitative real-time PCR normalization in Reaumuria soongorica.
abstract: Despite its superiority for evaluating gene expression, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results can be significantly biased by the use of inappropriate reference genes under different experimental conditions. Reaumuria soongorica is a dominant species of desert ecosystems in arid central Asia. Given the increasing interest in ecological engineering and potential genetic resources for arid agronomy, it is important to analyze gene function. However, systematic evaluation of stable reference genes should be performed prior to such analyses. In this study, the stabilities of 10 candidate reference genes were analyzed under 4 kinds of abiotic stresses (drought, salt, dark, and heat) within 4 accessions (HG010, HG020, XGG030, and XGG040) from 2 different habitats using 3 algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper). After validation of the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large unite (rbcL) expression pattern, our data suggested that histone H2A (H2A) and eukaryotic initiation factor 4A-2 (EIF4A2) were the most stable reference genes, cyclophilin (CYCL) was moderate, and elongation factor 1α (EF1α) was the worst choice. This first systematic analysis for stably expressed genes will facilitate future functional analyses and deep mining of genetic resources in R. soongorica and other species of the Reaumuria genus.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Inland River Ecohydrology, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China; Key Laboratory of Stress Physiology and Ecology in Cold and Arid Regions of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiobiology, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xicun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Stress Physiology and Ecology in Cold and Arid Regions of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Stress Physiology and Ecology in Cold and Arid Regions of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hengxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Inland River Ecohydrology, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Honglang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Stress Physiology and Ecology in Cold and Arid Regions of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D020871:RNA Stability; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics; D032363:Tamaricaceae / Q000235:genetics*