Selection and Validation of Reference Genes for Real-time Florescence Quantitative PCR Analysis on Gene Expression of White Tea

To select appropriate reference genes to be used in the real-time florescence quantitative PCR analysis for studying the gene expression in of white tea leaves during withering, the software of GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper were applied. Three stable reference genes, β-Actin, GAPDH and RUBP, were identified. Among them, RUBP was found most adequate for comparing the expressions at various stages of withering, while β-Actin for differentiating them in leaves from different parts of a tea plant. The combination of GAPDH+RUBP was determined as choice reference genes for the analysis.