Evaluation of Reference Genes for RT-qPCR Studies in the Seagrass Zostera muelleri Exposed to Light Limitation.

Sci Rep

Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster (C3), University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, NSW, Australia.

Published: November 2015

Seagrass meadows are threatened by coastal development and global change. In the face of these pressures, molecular techniques such as reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) have great potential to improve management of these ecosystems by allowing early detection of chronic stress. In RT-qPCR, the expression levels of target genes are estimated on the basis of reference genes, in order to control for RNA variations. Although determination of suitable reference genes is critical for RT-qPCR studies, reports on the evaluation of reference genes are still absent for the major Australian species Zostera muelleri subsp. capricorni (Z. muelleri). Here, we used three different software (geNorm, NormFinder and Bestkeeper) to evaluate ten widely used reference genes according to their expression stability in Z. muelleri exposed to light limitation. We then combined results from different software and used a consensus rank of four best reference genes to validate regulation in Photosystem I reaction center subunit IV B and Heat Stress Transcription factor A- gene expression in Z. muelleri under light limitation. This study provides the first comprehensive list of reference genes in Z. muelleri and demonstrates RT-qPCR as an effective tool to identify early responses to light limitation in seagrass.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4655411PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17051DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

reference genes
28
light limitation
16
evaluation reference
8
genes
8
rt-qpcr studies
8
zostera muelleri
8
muelleri exposed
8
exposed light
8
limitation seagrass
8
muelleri
6

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!