Plants are prone to low inorganic phosphorus (Pi) abiotic stress, which has adverse effects on the growth, development and physiological metabolic processes. Camellia hainanica, a local variety in Hainan, mostly grows in low-phosphorus environments. C. hainanica has unique genetic characteristics that distinguish it from C. oleifera. In this study, a tropical cultivar Haida Oil-tea 4 (H4) was used as the research object to screen reference genes suitable for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis of C. hainanica under low Pi stress. The expression levels of six candidate reference genes, EF1α1, GAPDH, Actin, UBQ, ETIF3H and TUB2, were detected by qRT-PCR. The stability of each reference gene was comprehensively evaluated using ΔCt, geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper software and RefFinder online analysis tools, and ETIF3H was identified as the optimal reference gene. Using ETIF3H as the reference gene, we validated the expression levels of three low Pi responsive genes. The results showed that the target genes were differentially expressed in response to low Pi, indicating that ETIF3H is suitable as a reference gene for detecting gene differential expression under low Pi stress conditions. This work would provide appropriate reference genes for transcript normalization in H4 under low Pi stress, which will facilitate subsequent study of phosphorus signal-response gene expression in C. hainanica.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |