Table 3.

Ranking of six candidate reference genes for Frieseomelitta varia based on their expression stability according to analyses by geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and delta-Ct during development, between sexes, in tissues, and after bacterial injection and pesticide exposure.

Condition	Reference Gene	geNorm		NormFinder		BestKeeper		delta-Ct
		Stability	Rank	Stability	Rank	Stability	Rank	Stability	Rank
Development	ef1-α	0.506	5	0.851	5	1.489	6	0.98	5
	gapdh	0.775	6	1.256	6	0.843	2	1.31	6
	rpl32	0.132	1	0.066	1	0.892	4	0.54	1
	rps5	0.290	4	0.387	4	0.673	1	0.67	4
	rps18	0.132	1	0.146	3	0.891	3	0.56	2
	tbp-af	0.221	3	0.121	2	0.903	5	0.59	3
Sex	ef1-α	0.745	6	1.398	6	1.471	6	1.42	6
	gapdh	0.309	4	0.447	4	0.491	2	0.71	4
	rpl32	0.120	3	0.065	3	0.548	4	0.53	3
	rps5	0.085	1	0.043	1	0.563	5	0.50	1
	rps18	0.409	5	0.715	5	0.375	1	0.81	5
	tbp-af	0.085	1	0.043	2	0.545	3	0.50	2
Tissues, organs and body parts	ef1-α	1.153	6	1.389	6	2.892	5	1.56	6
	gapdh	0.948	5	1.347	5	2.947	6	1.53	5
	rpl32	0.200	3	0.852	4	1.390	1	1.02	4
	rps5	0.078	1	0.556	3	1.552	3	0.89	2
	rps18	0.078	1	0.539	2	1.543	2	0.89	1
	tbp-af	0.436	4	0.460	1	1.720	4	1.02	3
Bacterial injection	ef1-α	0.880	6	1.222	6	2.013	6	1.26	6
	gapdh	0.688	5	0.945	5	1.910	5	1.09	5
	rpl32	0.084	1	0.542	2	0.843	3	0.72	2
	rps5	0.117	3	0.649	4	0.789	1	0.77	4
	rps18	0.084	1	0.555	3	0.887	2	0.72	1
	tbp-af	0.279	4	0.213	1	1.148	4	0.72	3
Pesticide exposure	ef1-α	0.184	5	0.200	5	0.262	5	0.25	5
	gapdh	0.217	6	0.260	6	0.334	6	0.28	6
	rpl32	0.102	3	0.168	4	0.105	2	0.21	4
	rps5	0.065	1	0.141	3	0.078	1	0.19	2
	rps18	0.120	4	0.108	2	0.186	4	0.20	3
	tbp-af	0.065	1	0.043	1	0.115	3	0.17	1