Identification of floral development reference genes in Prunus triloba cultivars with different petal types.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]