BACKGROUND

Passiflora edulis is a tropical fruit with high nutrient and medicinal values that is widely planted in southern China. However, the molecular biology of P. edulis has not been well studied. There are few reports regarding the choice of reference genes for gene expression studies of passion fruit.

METHODS AND RESULTS

By using three algorithms, implemented in geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper, we have selected ten candidate reference genes to explore their transcriptional expression stability in various tissues and under cold stress conditions. EF1 and HIS were stably expressed in five tissues. Ts and OTU were stably in vegetative organs. 50 S and Liom were stably in reproductive organs. The transcriptional abundance of EF1 and UBQ was stable in cold-treated and recovery treated leaf samples of P. edulis. In all samples, EF1 and Ts exhibited the highest expression stability. Evaluation of selected genes using simple statistical methods (ANOVA and post hoc analysis). Overall, EF1 emerged as the optimum reference gene for qRT-PCR normalize in P. edulis. In addition, the qRT-PCR analysis revealed that expression of ICE1 increases with the duration of cold treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we successfully screened stable reference genes from 10 candidates in P. edulis and verified the results by analyzing the expression level of ICE1. The results provide reliable and effective reference genes for future research on gene expression analysis in P. edulis, and lay a foundation for follow-up research on functional genes in P. edulis.