• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.28.1-28.8
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• 2019

Background: In the present study, we evaluated four commonly used housekeeping genes, viz., actin-β, elongation factor-1α (EF1α), acidic ribosomal protein (ARP), and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as internal references for quantitative analysis of immune genes in nervous necrosis virus (NNV)-infected seven-band grouper, Hyporthodus septemfasciatus. Methods: Expression profiles of the four genes were estimated in 12 tissues of healthy and infected seven-band grouper. Expression stability of the genes was calculated using the delta Ct method, BestKeeper, NormFinder, and geNorm algorithms. Consensus ranking was performed using RefFinder, and statistical analysis was done using GraphpadPrism 5.0. Results: Tissue-specific variations were observed in the four tested housekeeping genes of healthy and NNV-infected seven-band grouper. Fold change calculation for interferon-1 and Mx expression using the four housekeeping genes as internal references presented varied profiles for each tissue. EF1α and actin-β was the most stable expressed gene in tissues of healthy and NNV-infected seven-band grouper, respectively. Consensus ranking using RefFinder suggested EF1α as the least variable and highly stable gene in the healthy and infected animals. Conclusions: These results suggest that EF1α can be a fairly better internal reference in comparison to other tested genes in this study during the NNV infection process. This forms the pilot study on the validation of reference genes in Hyporthodus septemfasciatus, in the context of NNV infection.

• Entomological Research
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.390-399
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• 2018

In order to precisely assess gene expression levels, the suitable internal reference genes must be served to quantify real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) data. For armyworm, Mythimna separata, which reference genes are suitable for assessing the level of transcriptional expression of target genes have yet to be explored. In this study, eight common reference genes, including ${\beta}$-actin (${\beta}$-ACT), 18 s ribosomal (18S), 28S ribosomal (28S), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAPDH), elongation fator-alpha ($EF1{\alpha}$), TATA box binding protein (TBP), ribosomal protein L7 (RPL7), and alpha-tubulin (${\alpha}$-TUB) that in different developmental stages, tissues and insecticide treatments of M. separata were evaluated. To further explore whether these genes were suitable to serve as endogenous controls, three software-based approaches (geNorm, BestKeeper, and NormFinder), the delta Ct method, and one web-based comprehensive tool (RefFinder) were employed to analyze and rank the tested genes. The optimal number of reference genes was determined using the geNorm program, and the suitability of particular reference genes was empirically validated according to normalized HSP70, and MsepCYP321A10 gene expression data. We found that the most suitable reference genes for the different experimental conditions. For developmental stages, 28S/RPL7 were the optimal reference genes, both $RPL7/EF1{\alpha}$ were suitable for experiments of different tissues, whereas for insecticide treatments, $28S/{\alpha}-TUB$ were suitable for normalizations of expression data. In addition, $28S/{\alpha}-TUB$ were the suitable reference genes because they have the most stable expression among different developmental stages, tissues and insecticide treatments. Our work is the first report on reference gene selection in M. separata, and might serve as a precedent for future gene expression studies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.471-478
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• 2014

Investigating gene expression of immune cells of whole blood or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) under polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) stimulation is valuable for understanding the immune response of organism to RNA viruses. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is a standard method for quantification of gene expression studies. However, the reliability of qRT-PCR data critically depends on proper selection of reference genes. In the study, using two different analysis programs, geNorm and NormFinder, we systematically evaluated the gene expression stability of six candidate reference genes (GAPDH, ACTB, B2M, RPL4, TBP, and PPIA) in samples of whole blood and PBMC with or without poly I:C stimulation. Generally, the six candidate genes performed a similar trend of expression stability in the samples of whole blood and PBMC, but more stably expressed in whole blood than in PBMC. geNorm ranked B2M and PPIA as the best combination for gene expression normalization, while according to NormFinder, TBP was ranked as the most stable reference gene, followed by B2M and PPIA. Comprehensively considering the results from the two programs, we recommended using the geometric mean of the three genes, TBP, PPIA and B2M, to normalize the gene expression of whole blood and PBMC with poly I:C stimulation. Our study is the first detailed survey of the gene expression stability in whole blood and PBMC with or without poly I:C stimulation and should be helpful for investigating the molecular mechanism involved in porcine whole blood and PBMC in response to poly I:C stimulation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.417-428
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• 2020

Housekeeping genes are expressed in cells of all organisms and perform basic cellular functions such as energy generation, substance synthesis, cell death, and cell defense. Accordingly, the expression levels of housekeeping genes are relatively constant, and thus they are used as reference genes in gene expression studies, such as protein expression and mRNA expression analysis of target genes. However, the levels of expression of these genes may be different among various tissues or cells and may change under certain circumstances. Therefore, it is important to select the best reference gene for specific gene expression research by exploring the stability of housekeeping gene expression. This review summarizes housekeeping genes found in humans, chickens, pigs, and rats in the literature and estimates expression stability using geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper software. The most suitable reference housekeeping gene can selected based on expression stability according to the experimental conditions of the gene expression study and can thus be applied to data normalization.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.301-309
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• 2011

The filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum is an important cereal pathogen. Although quantitative realtime PCR (qRT-PCR) is commonly used to analyze the expression of important fungal genes, no detailed validation of reference genes for the normalization of qRT-PCR data has been performed in this fungus. Here, we evaluated 15 candidate genes as references, including those previously described as housekeeping genes and those selected from the whole transcriptome sequencing data. By a combination of three statistical algorithms (BestKeeper, geNorm, and NormFinder), the variation in the expression of these genes was assessed under different culture conditions that favored mycelial growth, sexual development, and trichothecene mycotoxin production. When favoring mycelial growth, GzFLO and GzUBH expression were most stable in complete medium. Both EF1A and GzRPS16 expression were relatively stable under all conditions on carrot agar, including mycelial growth and the subsequent perithecial induction stage. These two genes were also most stable during trichothecene production. For the combined data set, GzUBH and EF1A were selected as the most stable. Thus, these genes are suitable reference genes for accurate normalization of qRT-PCR data for gene expression analyses of F. graminearum and other related fungi.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.21.1-21.11
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• 2016

Background: The evaluation of suitable reference genes as normalization controls is a prerequisite requirement for launching quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR)-based expression study. In order to select the stable reference genes in abalone Haliotis discus hannai tissues (gill and hepatopancreas) under heavy metal exposure conditions (Cu, Zn, and Cd), 12 potential candidate housekeeping genes were subjected to expression stability based on the comprehensive ranking while integrating four different statistical algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and ${\Delta}CT$ method). Results: Expression stability in the gill subset was determined as RPL7 > RPL8 > ACTB > RPL3 > PPIB > RPL7A > EF1A > RPL4 > GAPDH > RPL5 > UBE2 > B-TU. On the other hand, the ranking in the subset for hepatopancreas was RPL7 > RPL3 > RPL8 > ACTB > RPL4 > EF1A > RPL5 > RPL7A > B-TU > UBE2 > PPIB > GAPDH. The pairwise variation assessed by the geNorm program indicates that two reference genes could be sufficient for accurate normalization in both gill and hepatopancreas subsets. Overall, both gill and hepatopancreas subsets recommended ribosomal protein genes (particularly RPL7) as stable references, whereas traditional housekeepers such as ${\beta}-tubulin$ (B-TU) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) genes were ranked as unstable genes. The validation of reference gene selection was confirmed with the quantitative assay of MT transcripts. Conclusions: The present analysis showed the importance of validating reference genes with multiple algorithmic approaches to select genes that are truly stable. Our results indicate that expression stability of a given reference gene could not always have consensus across tissue types. The data from this study could be a good guide for the future design of RT-qPCR studies with respect to metal regulation/detoxification and other related physiologies in this abalone species.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.112-121
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• 2017

Edwardsiella tarda is a gram-negative pathogenic bacterium in aquaculture that can cause hemorrhagic septicemia in fish. Many secreted proteins have already been identified as virulent factors of E. tarda. Moreover, since virulent phenotypes are based on the expression regulation of virulent genes, understanding the expression profile of virulent genes is important. A quantitative RT-PCR is one of the preferred methods for determining different gene expressions. However, this requires the selection of a stable reference gene in E. tarda, which has not yet been systematically studied. Accordingly, this study evaluated nine candidate reference genes (recA, uup, rpoB, rho, topA, gyrA, groEL, rpoD, and 16S rRNA) using the Excel-based programs BestKeeper, GeNorm, and NormFinder under different culture conditions. The results showed that 16S rRNA was more stable than the other genes at different culture growth phases. However, at the same culture time, topA was identified as the reference gene under the conditions of different strains, different culture media, and infection, whereas gyrA was identified under the condition of different temperatures. Thus, in experiments, the expression of gapA and fbaA in E. tarda was analyzed by RT-qPCR using 16S rRNA, recA, and uup as the reference genes. The results showed that 16S rRNA was the most suitable reference gene in this analysis, and that using unsuitable reference genes resulted in inaccurate results.

• ALGAE
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2016

Biological response of cells to variable conditions should affect the expression level of certain genes. Quantification of these changes in target genes needs stable internal controls. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has traditionally used reference or ‘housekeeping’ genes, that are considered to maintain equal expression in different conditions, to evaluate changes in target genes between samples and experimental conditions. Recent studies showed that some housekeeping genes may vary considerably in certain biological samples. This has not been evaluated in red algae. In order to identify the optimal internal controls for real-time PCR, we studied the expression of eleven commonly used housekeeping genes; elongation factor 1-alpha, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, β-actin, polyubiquitin, 30S ribosomal gene, 60S ribosomal gene, beta-tubulin, alpha-tubulin, translation initiation factor, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, and isocitrate dehydrogenase in different life-history stages of Bostrychia moritziana. Our results suggest that glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and 30S ribosomal gene, have the most stable gene expression levels between the different life history stages (male, female, carposporophyte, and tetrasporophyte), while the other genes are not satisfactory as internal controls. These results suggest that the combinations of GAPDH and 30S would be useful as internal controls to assess expression level changes in genes that may control different physiological processes in this organism or that may change in different life history stages. These results may also be useful in other red algal systems.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.423-432
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• 2013

Zi geese (Anser anser domestica) belong to the white geese and are excellent layers with a superior feed-to-egg conversion ratio. Quantitative gene expression analysis, such as Real-time qRT-PCR, will provide a good understanding of ovarian function during egg-laying and consequently improve egg production. However, we still don't know what reference genes in geese, which show stable expression, should be used for such quantitative analysis. In order to reveal such reference genes, the stability of seven genes were tested in five tissues of Zi geese. Methodology/Principal Findings: The relative transcription levels of genes encoding hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase 1 (HPRT1), ${\beta}$-actin (ACTB), ${\beta}$-tubulin (TUB), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GADPH), succinate dehydrogenase flavoprotein (SDH), 28S rRNA (28S) and 18S rRNA (18S) have been quantified in heart, liver, kidney, muscle and ovary in Zi geese respectively at different developmental stages (1 d, 2, 4, 6 and 8 months). The expression stability of these genes was analyzed using geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper software. Conclusions: The expression of 28S in heart, GAPDH in liver and ovary, ACTB in kidney and HPRT1 in muscle are the most stable genes as identified by the three different analysis methods. Thus, these genes are recommended for use as candidate reference genes to compare mRNA transcription in various developmental stages of geese.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.280-291
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• 2019

Potential utility of 14 candidate housekeeping genes as normalization reference for RT-qPCR analysis with developmental samples (fertilized eggs to late veliger larvae) in Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai was evaluated using four different statistical algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and comparative ΔCT method). Different algorithms identified different genes as the best candidates, and geometric mean-based final ranking from the most to the least stable expression was as follow: RPL5, RPL4, RPS18, RPL8, RPL7, UBE2, RPL7A, GAPDH, RPL36, PPIB, EF1A, ACTB and B-TU. The findings were further validated via relative quantification of metallothionein (MT) transcripts using the stable and unstable reference genes, and expression levels of MT were greatly influenced according to the choice of reference genes. In overall, our data suggest that RPL5 and RPS18, either singly or in combination, are appropriate for normalizing gene expression in developmental samples of this abalone species, whereas ACTB, B-TU and EF1A are less stable and not recommended. In addition, our findings propose that standard deviations in geometric ranking as well as geometric mean itself should also be taken into account for the final selection of reference gene(s). This study could be a useful basis to facilitate the generation of accurate and reliable RT-qPCR data with developmental samples in this abalone species.