AUTHOR=Lv Yao , Li Yanyan , Liu Xiaohui , Xu Kun TITLE=Identification of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) Reference Genes for Gene Expression Analysis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2020.586098 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2020.586098 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is widely used in the detection of gene expression level. However, there is no suitable ginger reference gene for qPCR analysis. Therefore, it is the primary task to select and validate the appropriate ginger reference gene to normalize the expression of target genes. In this study, 14 candidate reference genes were selected and analyzed in different tissues (leaf, and rhizome), different development stages, different varieties and abiotic stress (ABA and salt stress). Expression stability was calculated using geNorm and NormFinder, Bestkeeper, and RefFinder. For abiotic stress and total conditions, 28S and COX were identified as the most stable genes. In contrast, RPII was the most stable in the different development stages and different varieties. TEF2, and RPL2 were the least stably expressed in the tissue and all the sample sets. To further verify the suitability of these genes for use as reference genes, ZoSPS gene expression levels were normalized using the most and least stable reference genes in different conditions.This work will facilitate future work on gene expression studies in ginger.