Figure 3.

Transcript abundance of five reference genes in chicken skeletal muscle as postmortem extended. The chosen reference genes include beta-actin (ACTB), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), hypoxanthice-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase (HPRT), peptidylprolylisomerase A (PPIA), and TATA box-binding protein (TBP). Bars represent fold changes (mean± standard error of the mean) in expression of genes at 1.5 h or 6 h postmortem relative to 20 min postmortem. Relative fold expression of one gene was calculated using 2^−ΔCt′ method, where ΔCt′ = Ct_{1.5 h or 6 h} – Ct₂₀ min. Different letters above the bars indicate significant difference (p<0.05) in expression of each gene at different time points (p≥0.05).