Prunus triloba, a well-known ornamental plant, is native to northern China. There
are three kinds of petals of P. triloba: simple flower, semi-double flower and double flower.
At present, the specific molecular mechanisms of floral development in P. triloba is not clear.
Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) has been
widely used to measure gene expression level to further explore gene function, while suitable
reference genes must maintain stable expression under different conditions to obtain accurate
data. In order to select appropriate reference genes for three cultivars of P. triloba with
different petal types, 9 candidate reference genes were evaluated, namely Pt18sRNA, PtTEF2,
PtACTIN, PtGAPDH, PtEF 1-α1, PtEF 1-α2, PtEF 1-α3, PtRPL13 and PtRPII. The geNorm
and NormFinder algorithms were used to analyse the data from three kinds of flower buds and
organs of different petal-type cultivars (P. triloba ‘Dahuazi’, P. triloba ‘Fuban Tiaozhi’ and
P. triloba ‘Hanyan’). Our results show that the suitable internal reference genes are different
among cultivars: PtRPL13 and PtRPII present greater stability in P. triloba ‘Dahuazi’ and P.
triloba ‘Fuban Tiaozhi’, whereas PtGAPDH is more stable in the study of gene expression of
P. triloba ‘Hanyan’ organs by qRT-PCR.
Keywords
Prunus triloba, reference genes, qRT-PCR, floral development
MAEJO INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY