The 60S ribosomal protein L13 is the most preferable reference gene to investigate gene expression in selected organs from turkeys and chickens, in context of different infection models

Evaluation of reference genes for expression studies in chickens and turkeys is very much limited and unavailable for various infectious models. In this study, eight candidate reference genes HMBS, HPRT1, TBP, VIM, TFRC, RPLP0, RPL13 and RPS7 were evaluated by five different algorithms (GeNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper©, delta CT, RefFinder) to assess their stability. In order to analyze a broad variation of tissues, spleen, liver, caecum and caecal tonsil of different aged specific pathogen free (SPF) layer chickens and commercial turkeys, uninfected or infected with the extracellular pathogen Histomonas meleagridis, were included. For tissue samples from SPF chickens RPL13 and TBP were found to be the most stable reference genes. Further testing of RPL13 and TBP in the same organs of uninfected and infected SPF broiler chickens with the intracellular pathogen fowl aviadenovirus confirmed this finding. In tissue samples from turkeys, a stable expression of RPL13 and TFRC genes was noticed. Overall, the determined reference genes should be considered whenever gene expression studies in spleen, liver, caecum and caecal tonsil of chickens and turkeys are performed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13567-016-0388-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.