Abstract
Insecticide resistance has long been a problem in crop pest control. Bactericera gobica is a major pest on the well-known medicinal plants Lycium barbarum L. Investigating insecticide resistance mechanisms of B. gobica will help to identify pesticide reduction strategies to control the pest. Gene expression normalization by RT-qPCR requires the selection and validation of appropriate reference genes (RGs). Here, 15 candidate RGs were selected from transcriptome data of B. gobica. Their expression stability was evaluated with five algorithms (Delta Ct, GeNorm, Normfinder, BestKeeper and RefFinder) for sample types differing in response to five insecticide stresses and in four other experimental conditions. Our results indicated that the RGs RPL10 + RPS15 for Imidacloprid and Abamectin; RPL10 + AK for Thiamethoxam; RPL32 + RPL10 for λ-cyhalothrin; RPL10 + RPL8 for Matrine; and EF2 + RPL32 under different insecticide stresses were the most suitable RGs for RT-qPCR normalization. EF1α + RPL8, EF1α + β-actin, β-actin + EF2 and β-actin + RPS15 were the optimal combination of RGs under odor stimulation, temperature, developmental stages and both sexes, respectively. Overall, EF2 and RPL8 were the two most stable RGs in all conditions, while α-TUB and RPL32 were the least stable RGs. The corresponding suitable RGs and one unstable RG were used to normalize a target cytochrome P450 CYP6a1 gene between adult and nymph stages and under imidacloprid stress. The results of CYP6a1 expression were consistent with transcriptome data. This study is the first research on the most stable RG selection in B. gobica nymphs exposed to different insecticides, which will contribute to further research on insecticide resistance mechanisms in B. gobica.