As a prerequisite for gene expression analyses in cell cultures of the
ornamental crop Cyclamen persicum basic parameters for quantitative
real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) have been established
including the selection of reference genes using the software tools
‘geNorm’ and ‘NormFinder’. Five potential
reference genes have been tested (elongation factor tu (Ef-Tu),
putative ABC transporter ATPase, putative conserved oligomeric Golgi
(COG) complex component, V-ATPase G subunit 1 and Histone H3-K9
methyltransferase 4 (H3-K9-HMTase 4)). ‘NormFinder’ as well
as ‘geNorm’ identified Ef-Tu to be the least stable
reference gene while the ranking of the most stable genes differed
depending on the algorithm. According to ‘NormFinder’ COG
complex component displayed the most stable expression whereas
‘geNorm’ indicated V-ATPase G subunit 1 and a putative ABC
transporter ATPase to be the most reliable reference genes. Hence, we
concluded to use a normalization factor calculated from the four
reference genes V-ATPase G subunit 1, ABC transporter ATPase, Histone
H3-K9 methyltransferase 4 (H3-K9-HMTase 4) and COG complex component
for normalization of qRT-PCR in cell cultures of Cyclamen persicum