Validation of reference genes for quantitative measurement of immune gene expression in shrimp

Arun K. Dhar, Robert M. Bowers, Kate S. Licon, Gregory Veazey, Betsy Read

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

To accurately measure the relative expression of a target gene, mRNA expression data is routinely normalized with reference to an internal control gene. We examined the transcriptional stability of four internal control genes, β-actin, glyceroldehyde-3 phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), elongation factor1-alpha (EF1-α), and 18S ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) while measuring the mRNA expression of a gene encoding a pattern recognition protein, lipopolysaccharide and glucan binding protein (LGBP) gene, in healthy and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infected shrimp (Penaeus stylirostris) before and after (4, 8, 16 and 32 h) challenge using real-time RT-PCR. Here, we describe a method to rank the internal control genes based on a linear regression analysis. This analysis enables us to analyze the multivariate data set, e.g. time course study samples with control and treatment groups. Using the linear regression analysis and the WSSV-challenged time course samples, GAPDH was found to be the most stable internal control gene followed by the genes EF1-α, 18S rRNA and β-actin. Using the program geNorm, GAPDH was also found to be the most stable gene followed by the genes EF1-α, β-actin and 18S rRNA. Using the program NormFinder, the ranking of the internal control genes were in the order of EF1-α > GAPDH > 18S rRNA > β-actin. The ability to compare the healthy and WSSV infected samples in parallel by the regression analysis makes this method a very useful approach while identifying the optimal reference gene for gene expression analysis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1688-1695
Number of pages8
JournalMolecular Immunology
Volume46
Issue number8-9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Immune gene
  • LGBP
  • Real-time RT-PCR
  • Reference gene
  • SYBR Green
  • Shrimp

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology
  • Molecular Biology

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