Table 3. Overall stability of candidate reference genes according to the four evaluation algorithms.
| Rank | Gene | Overall Ranking | BestKeeper |
GeNorm | Delta Ct | NormFinder | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SD(Cq) | r, BKI (N = 3) | M value | SD(∆ Cq) | ρ value | |||
| 1 | SNORD48 | 1 | 0.72 | 0.85 | 0.64 | 1.37 | 0.34 |
| 2 | SNORD44 | 1.9 | 1.06 | 0.86 | 0.64 | 1.45 | 0.39 |
| 3 | 5S | 3.2 | 1.28 | NA | 1.18 | 1.66 | 0.42 |
| 4 | miR-16 | 3.4 | 0.70 | 0.45 | 1.45 | 1.88 | 0.46 |
| 5 | U6 | 5 | 1.62 | NA | 1.67 | 2.00 | 0.54 |
Genes are ordered according to the comprehensive ranking given by the geometric mean of the rankings obtained by the four analyses. BKI = BestKeeper Index, calculated excluding the two genes with the highest variability (N = 3); Cq = qPCR quantification cycle; SD(ΔCq) = average standard deviation of Cq differences; NA = not assigned; r = Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient; SD = standard deviation.