Table 1.

Primer and probe sequences for vtg, tbp, hprt1 and rpl8 recorded 5′ to 3′. References are GenBank accession numbers for sequence used to design primers and probes or publication they were copied from. See Supplementary Information Section 2 for details on vtg. Primers with MGB probes were designed using PrimerExpress v3.0.1 (Applied Biosystems, USA).

Primer Name	Sequence 5’ – 3’	Final RT-qPCR concentration (nM)	Amplicon (bp)/qPCR Efficiency	Reference
vtg Q F3738	CACCACATACGCCAAAAAGCT	250	67 / 94%	AF130354.1
vtg Q R3805	CAAGTCTAAAGCCCGTCTGGTT	250
vtg Q PB3766	6FAM-CACATTCCTATGGCGGC-MGBNFQ	300
hprt1 Q F422	ATTCCGATGACAGTGGACTTCA	300	65 / 92%	DT085800.1
hprt1 Q R487	GATGTCACCTGTAGATTGGTCATTTT	300
hprt1 Q PB445	6FAM-CCGACTCAAGAGTTAC-MGBNFQ	250
tbp Q F657	AGGAGCCAAAAGTGAGGAACAG	300	60 / 93%	DT344258.1
tbp Q R717	CTGCACCACTCTGGCATATTTC	300
tbp Q PB680	6FAM-CCCGATTGGCAGCCA-MGBNFQ	250
rpl8 Q F84	TCAAGGGGATTGTGAAGGAC	100	72 / 92%	Flick et. al. 2014
rpl8 Q R156	TCACGGAAAACCACCTTAGC	100