Evaluation of suitable reference genes for normalization of microRNA expression by real-time reverse transcription PCR analysis during longan somatic embryogenesis

► Expression stability of longan RNAs was compared using geNorm and NormFinder. ► Small RNAs had better expression stability than protein-coding genes. ► dlo-miR24 was recommended if only a single reference gene was to be used. ► A combination of three small RNAs was preferred to normalize miRNA expression.