Housekeeping Genes | www.genomics-online.com (2024)

Housekeeping genes, also known as reference genes, are a set of genes that are constitutively expressed in cells and are essential for basic cellular functions. These genes encode for proteins that are involved in fundamental cellular processes, such as cell cycle regulation, DNA replication, and metabolism. In life science experiments, housekeeping genes are commonly used as internal controls or normalization factors to ensure accurate gene expression analysis. Their stable expression levels across different cell types and experimental conditions make them ideal references for comparing the expression levels of other genes of interest. Therefore, housekeeping genes play a crucial role in ensuring the reliability and reproducibility of experimental results in various applications, such as gene expression profiling, qPCR, and Western blotting. genomics-online offers a set of high quality siRNA Oligos for knockdown of housekeeping genes via RNA interference (RNAi).

Primer for Housekeeping Genes

  • What are Housekeeping Genes
  • What is the Purpose of Housekeeping Genes
  • Limitations of Housekeeping Genes
  • siRNA Oligos for Knockdown of Important Housekeeping Genes
  • References

What are Housekeeping Genes

Housekeeping genes are typically constitutive genes that are required for the maintenance of basal cellular functions that are essential for the existence of a cell, regardless of its specific role in the tissue or organism. Thus, they are expressed in all cells of an organism under normal and patho-physiological conditions, irrespective of tissue type, developmental stage, cell cycle state, or external signal.

What is the Purpose of Housekeeping Genes

They gain scientific value in two ways. On the one hand they represent the minimal set of genes required to sustain life. On the other hand Housekeeping genes are widely used as internal controls for experimental studies1. The reliability of any relative RT-PCR experiment can be improved by including an invariant endogenous control (reference gene) in the assay to correct for sample to sample variations in RT-PCR efficiency and errors in sample quantification. A biologically meaningful reporting of target mRNA copy numbers requires accurate and relevant normalization to some standard and is strongly recommended in quantitative RT-PCR.

Limitations of Housekeeping Genes

The group of housekeeping genes unites unique genomic and evolutionary features. They have for example shorter introns and exons, more simple sequence repeats and lower potential for nucleosome formation in the 5′ region 2. Nevertheless the gathering of new data about possible housekeeping genes struggles with the same reliability problems they are used to compensate. Several splice variants, duplicative regions, and the general lower expression of upstream exons caused by reverse transcriptase errors complicate interpretation of RT-PCR results (fig. 1).

Another issue is the definition of Housekeeping genes itself3. Is it enough to look for genes being expressed in all tissues, or should the genes also be expressed at a constant level across tissues? Early studies generally adopted the first definition and, in fact, GAPDH and other popular Housekeeping genes for experimental controls have been found to vary considerably across tissues. This is why before starting a new experiment it is advisable to review the literature and technical information in your field to determine which gene(s) other researchers commonly use. It is recommended that multiple Housekeeping genes be utilized for each gene expression experiment, to account for any impact that an experimental condition may have on the expression of an individual Housekeeping gene.

Housekeeping Genes | www.genomics-online.com (1)

siRNA Oligos for Knockdown of Important Housekeeping Genes

Below you can find a list of important Housekeeping genes available at genomics-online, if u have further questions concerning your RT-PCR or are unsure which Housekeeping gene is the right choice our team of qualified scientist will gladly assist u, either per mail or phone.

Gene Gene symbol Human ABIN Mouse ABIN Rat ABIN
18S ribosomal RNA RRN18S - - - - - -
Actin, beta ACTB - - Murine ACTB ABIN3268757 Rattus ACTB ABIN3358902
Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase GAPDH Human GAPDH ABIN3341519 Murine GAPDH ABIN3267272 Rattus GAPDH ABIN3354787
Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 PGK1 Human PGK1 ABIN3343258 Murine PGK1 ABIN3269916 Rattus PGK1
Peptidylprolyl isomerase A PPIA Human PPIA ABIN3343438 Murine PPIA ABIN3277694 Rattus PPIA ABIN3351279
Ribosomal protein L13a RPL13A Human RPL13A ABIN3284372 Murine RPL13A ABIN3279210 Rattus RPL13 - RPL13A ABIN3358726
Ribosomal protein, large, P0 RPLP0 Human RPLP0 ABIN3272830 Murine RPLP0 ABIN3356717 Rattus RPLP0 ABIN3343919
Acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein PO ARBP - - - - - -
Beta-2-microglobulin B2M Human B2M ABIN3340183 Murine B2M ABIN3275845 Rattus B2M ABIN3352421
Tyrosine
3-monooxygenase/tryptophan5-monooxygenase activation protein, zeta polypeptide
YWHAZ - - Murine YWHAZ ABIN3280823 Rattus YWHAZ ABIN3353965
Succinate dehydrogenase complex, subunit A, flavoprotein (Fp) SDHA Human SDHA ABIN3344077 Murine SDHA ABIN3266387 Rattus SDHA ABIN3351449
Transferrin receptor TFRC - - Murine TRFC ABIN3263110 - -
Glucuronidase, beta GUSB Human GUSB ABIN3341809 Murine GUSB ABIN3266176 Rattus GUSB ABIN3358691
Hydroxymethylbilane synthase HMBS Human HMBS ABIN3341923 Murine HMBS ABIN3268283 Rattus HMBS ABIN3361100
Hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase 1 HPRT1 Human HPRT1 ABIN3342006 Murine HPRT1 ABIN3279822 - -
TATA box binding protein TBP Human TBP ABIN3344497 Murine TBP ABIN3272731 Rattus TBP ABIN3354199

References:

  1. Moein, Javanmard, Abedi, Izadpanahi, Gheisari: "Identification of Appropriate Housekeeping Genes for Gene Expression Analysis in Long-term Hypoxia-treated Kidney Cells." in: Advanced biomedical research, Vol. 6, pp. 15, (2017) (PubMed).
  2. Curina, Termanini, Barozzi, Prosperini, Simonatto, Polletti, Silvola, Soldi, Austenaa, Bonaldi, Ghisletti, Natoli: "High constitutive activity of a broad panel of housekeeping and tissue-specific cis-regulatory elements depends on a subset of ETS proteins." in: Genes & development, Vol. 31, Issue 4, pp. 399-412, (2017) (PubMed).
  3. Eisenberg, Levanon: "Human housekeeping genes, revisited." in: Trends in genetics : TIG, Vol. 29, Issue 10, pp. 569-74, (2014) (PubMed).
Housekeeping Genes | www.genomics-online.com (2024)
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