Selection of reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR analysis of photosynthesis-related genes expression in .

Photosynthesis is closely related to the growth of plants. A stable reference gene is fundamental for studies of the molecular mechanism of photosynthesis in . Therefore, it is very important to select a suitable reference gene for qRT-PCR analysis on genes of photosynthetic system, chlorophyll biosynthetic pathway and chloroplast development in . Three kinds of tissues, leaves and bulbs (abnormal leaves) of tissue culture plantlets and cotyledons of seedlings of the wild-type and mutant were selected as materials for qRT-PCR. Six housekeeping genes were selected as candidate genes from transcriptome sequencing data of the wild-type and yellow seedling lethal mutant of . Finally, the expression stability of six candidate reference genes was analyzed using geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper software, the comparative ∆Ct method, and the RefFinder program. The results showed that was the best reference gene for qRT-PCR analysis of photosynthesis-related genes expression in leaves of tissue culture plantlets and seedlings of . This study provided useful data for further research on molecular mechanism of photosynthesis in the .