Selection of suitable reference genes for real-time qPCR gene expression in cauliflower under abiotic stress and methyl jasmonate treatment

Abstract

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis), an annual herbaceous crop belonging to the cruciferous vegetables, is an important and widely-grown vegetable worldwide (Giuffrida et al. 2018). It is an excellent source of phenolics, ascorbic acid, vitamins B1, B2, and B3, folic acid, tocopherols, and dietary fibre (Mashabela et al. 2018, Nerdy 2018, Sun et al. 2018, Thorwarth et al. 2018). Medical research has revealed that a diet rich in cauliflower can lower the risk of cancer (Bergès et al. 2018, Kalisz et al. 2018). Cauliflower contains glucosinolates, a class of secondary plant metabolites; their hydrolyzed products have anti-carcinogenic properties (Oda et al. 2019). The findings of multiple studies have indicated that environmental stresses can increase the accumulation of glucosinolates (Jousef et al. 2018, Oda et al. 2019), but the glucosinolate content in most cauliflower plants is very