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Selection and validation of reference genes for normalization of qRT-PCR gene expression in wheat (Triticum durum L.) under drought and salt stresses

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Abstract

Eight candidate housekeeping genes were examined as internal controls for normalizing expression analysis of durum wheat (Triticum durum L.) under drought and salinity stress conditions. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to analyse gene expression of multiple stress levels, plant ages (24 and 50 days old), and plant tissues (leaf and root). The algorithms BestKeeper, NormFinder, GeNorm, the delta Ct method and the RefFinder were applied to determine the stability of candidate genes. Under drought stress, the most stable reference genes were glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate, ubiquitin and \(\beta \)-tubulin2, whereas under salinity stress conditions, eukaryotic elongation factor 1-\(\alpha \), glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate and actin were identified as the most stable reference genes. Validation with stress-responsive genes NAC29 and NAC6 demonstrated that the expression level of target genes could be determined reliably with combinations of up to three of the reference genes. This is the first report on reference genes appropriate for quantification of target gene expression in T. durum under drought and salt stresses. Results of this investigation may be applicable to other Triticum species.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Ali Hadipour, Dr Arman Salehi and Dr Negar Salehi for editing this paper and especially Mrs Sheryl Nikpoor and Navid Jamshidi for their valuable comments. Also, we are thankful to anonymous referees who helped us to improve our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Breeding, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, 8616871967, Iran

    Jamshidi Goharrizi Kiarash & Mohammad Mehdi Moemeni

  2. Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, University of Georgia, Athens, 30602, USA

    Henry Dayton Wilde

  3. Faculty of Sciences, Genetic Division, Department of Biology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, 8174673441, Iran

    Farzane Amirmahani

  4. Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Birjand, Birjand, 7761676334, Iran

    Maryam Zaboli

  5. Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, 6517838695, Iran

    Maryam Nazari & Sayyed Saeed Moosavi

  6. Department of Genetic, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, 1477893855, Iran

    Mina Jamalvandi

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  1. Jamshidi Goharrizi Kiarash
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  2. Henry Dayton Wilde
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Correspondence to Jamshidi Goharrizi Kiarash.

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Corresponding editor: R. S. Sangwan

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Kiarash, J.G., Wilde, H.D., Amirmahani, F. et al. Selection and validation of reference genes for normalization of qRT-PCR gene expression in wheat (Triticum durum L.) under drought and salt stresses. J Genet 97, 1433–1444 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-018-1042-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-018-1042-5

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