Why GAPDH is a housekeeping gene?

GAPDH is a key regulatory enzyme, which catalyzes the oxidative phosphorylation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate during glycolysis. β-actin is a cytoskeletal protein involved in cell structure and motility. Based on these basic and ubiquitous cellular functions, GAPDH and β-actin are considered as housekeeping genes.

Is beta tubulin a housekeeping gene?

The most commonly used housekeeping gene-coded proteins are β-actin, β-tubulin and GAPDH. Those housekeeping proteins are used as internal controls in the western blot analysis with presumed stability and no changes in physiological condition.

Do viruses have housekeeping genes?

Different viruses manipulate different cellular transcription pathways and the extent to which these pathways are affected will be dependent on the specific strain of virus and the cell type infected. Thus it is not possible to identify a single housekeeping gene for use in QPCR studies of viral infections.

What is the purpose of a housekeeping gene?

Housekeeping genes are cellular maintenance genes which regulate basic and ubiquitous cellular functions. In many RT-qPCR reactions, these genes are used as internal control genes without proper validation.

Is GAPDH a housekeeping gene?

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is one of the most commonly used housekeeping genes used in comparisons of gene expression data. These data establish comparative levels of expression and can be used to add value to gene expression data in which GAPDH is used as the internal control.

What do housekeeping genes do?

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. On the one hand they represent the minimal set of genes required to sustain life.

Can housekeeping genes change function?

Housekeeping genes are always stably expressed in any tissue and environmental condition, but non-housekeeping genes, especially tissue-specific genes, may adjust to different conditions by different transcript isoforms.

Is B2M a good housekeeping gene?

In addition, B2M, which has been found to be a stable housekeeping gene in other biological systems [14, 17] showed one of the highest levels of variation in this tissue. A large number of studies have been carried out concerning the validation of housekeeping genes in many different tissues and cell types.

How is the expression of a housekeeping gene used?

Housekeeping gene. For experimental purposes, the expression of one or multiple housekeeping genes is used as a reference point for the analysis of expression levels of other genes. The key criterion for the use of a housekeeping gene in this manner is that the chosen housekeeping gene is uniformly expressed with low variance under both control…

Which is the best database for housekeeping genes?

Recently a web-based database of human and mouse housekeeping genes and reference genes/transcripts, named Housekeeping and Reference Transcript Atlas (HRT Atlas), was developed to offer updated list of housekeeping genes and reliable candidate reference genes/transcripts for RT-qPCR data normalization.

Why are housekeeping genes difficult to study?

Biochemical studies on transcription initiation of the housekeeping gene promoters have been difficult, partly due to the less-characterized promoter motifs and transcription initiation process. Human housekeeping gene promoters are generally depleted of TATA -box, have high GC content and high incidence of CpG Islands.

How is human beta actin homologous to other actins?

Human beta actin shares close to 90% identity with fungal homologs. Human beta actin is at least 93% identical with other members of the human actin family. This homology among actins and across species is important for antibody selection and the interpretation of Western blot bands.