Research Center) following the manufacturer’s protocol. Firststrand cDNA was synthesized from the DNase I-treated total RNA according to the manufacturer’s instructions provided by the RevertAid First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Thermo Scientific). The semi-quantitative (sq)-RT-PCR was carried out as described previously (Amparyup et al., 2009) using the gene specific primers listed in Table 1. A fragment of elongation factor 1-a (EF1-a) gene was amplified and used as an internal reference control (Table 1). Each amplified product was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis followed by ethidium bromide staining and UV-transillumination.