Evaluation of potential reference genes for real-time qPCR analysis in a biparental beetle, Lethrus apterus (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae).

ABSTRACT: Hormones play an important role in the regulation of physiological, developmental and behavioural processes. Many of these mechanisms in insects, however, are still not well understood. One way to investigate hormonal regulation is to analyse gene expression patterns of hormones and their receptors by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). This method, however, requires stably expressed reference genes for normalisation. In the present study, we evaluated 11 candidate housekeeping genes as reference genes in samples of Lethrus apterus, an earth-boring beetle with biparental care, collected from a natural population. For identifying the most stable genes we used the following computational methods: geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, comparative delta Ct method and R

SUBMITTER: Nagy NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5710163 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature