Screening of Reference Genes for MicroRNA Analysis in the Study of Solider Caste Differentiation of Formosan Subterranean Termite Coptotermes Formosanus Shiraki

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2023 Jun 9

PMID 37296242

Authors

He Du

Runmei Huang

Dasong Chen

Chaofu Huang

Huan Zhang

Zhiqiang Lia

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The soldier caste differentiation is a complex process that is governed by the transcriptional regulation and post-transcriptional regulation. microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that control a wide range of activities. However, their roles in solider caste differentiation are barely studied. RT-qPCR is a powerful tool to study the function of genes. A reference gene is required for normalization for the the relative quantification method. However, no reference gene is available for miRNA quantification in the study of solider caste differentiation of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki. In this research, in order to screen the suitable reference genes for the study of the roles of miRNAs in solider caste differentiation, the expression levels of 8 candidate miRNA genes were quantified in the head and thorax + abdomen during soldier differentiation. The qPCR data were analyzed using geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, ΔC method and RefFinder. The normalization effect of the reference genes was evaluated using the let-7-3p. Our study showed that novel-m0649-3p was the most stable reference gene, while U6 was the least stable reference gene. Our study has selected the most stable reference gene, and has paved the way for functional analysis of miRNAs in solider caste differentiation.

Citing Articles

Regulation of soldier caste differentiation by microRNAs in Formosan subterranean termite ( Shiraki).

Du H, Huang R, Chen D, Zhuang T, Huang X, Zhang H PeerJ. 2024; 12:e16843.

PMID: 38436016 PMC: 10909360. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16843.

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