*4.7. Validation of Gene Expression Using Quantitative Real Time-PCR*

The qRT-PCR was performed on RNA extracted from leaf samples of "Variegatum" and "Green Pittosporum" as described by Dossa et al. [96] using the *Actin* gene as the internal control. Specific primer pairs of ten selected genes were designed using the Primer Premier 5.0 [97] (Table S3). Data are presented as relative transcript level based on the 2-∆∆*Ct* method [98].
