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Housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in mouse tissues.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: This study aims to characterize the housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in 15 mouse tissues by using the serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) strategy which indicates the relative level of expression for each transcript matched to the tag. RESULTS: Here, we identified constantly expressed housekeeping genes, such as eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2, which is expressed in all tissues without significant difference in expression levels. Moreover, most of these genes were not regulated by experimental conditions such as steroid hormones, adrenalectomy and gonadectomy. In addition, we report previously postulated housekeeping genes such as peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase A, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and beta-actin, which are expressed in all the tissues, but with significant difference in their expression levels. We have also identified genes uniquely detected in each of the 15 tissues and other tissues from public databases. CONCLUSION: These identified housekeeping genes could represent appropriate controls for RT-PCR and northern blot when comparing the expression levels of genes in several tissues. The results reveal several tissue-specific genes highly expressed in testis and pituitary gland. Furthermore, the main function of tissue-specific genes expressed in liver, lung and bone is the cell defence, whereas several keratins involved in cell structure function are exclusively detected in skin and vagina. The results from this study can be used for example to target a tissue for agent delivering by using the promoter of tissue-specific genes. Moreover, this study could be used as basis for further researches on physiology and pathology of these tissues.

SUBMITTER: Kouadjo KE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1888706 | biostudies-literature | 2007

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in mouse tissues.

Kouadjo Kouame E KE Nishida Yuichiro Y Cadrin-Girard Jean F JF Yoshioka Mayumi M St-Amand Jonny J

BMC genomics 20070522

<h4>Background</h4>This study aims to characterize the housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in 15 mouse tissues by using the serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) strategy which indicates the relative level of expression for each transcript matched to the tag.<h4>Results</h4>Here, we identified constantly expressed housekeeping genes, such as eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2, which is expressed in all tissues without significant difference in expression levels. Moreover, most of ...[more]

PMID: 17519037

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Project description:BackgroundHousekeeping genes (HKG) are constitutively expressed in all tissues while tissue-enriched genes (TEG) are expressed at a much higher level in a single tissue type than in others. HKGs serve as valuable experimental controls in gene and protein expression experiments, while TEGs tend to represent distinct physiological processes and are frequently candidates for biomarkers or drug targets. The genomic features of these two groups of genes expressed in opposing patterns may shed light on the mechanisms by which cells maintain basic and tissue-specific functions.ResultsHere, we generate gene expression profiles of 42 normal human tissues on custom high-density microarrays to systematically identify 1,522 HKGs and 975 TEGs and compile a small subset of 20 housekeeping genes which are highly expressed in all tissues with lower variance than many commonly used HKGs. Cross-species comparison shows that both the functions and expression patterns of HKGs are conserved. TEGs are enriched with respect to both segmental duplication and copy number variation, while no such enrichment is observed for HKGs, suggesting the high expression of HKGs are not due to high copy numbers. Analysis of genomic and epigenetic features of HKGs and TEGs reveals that the high expression of HKGs across different tissues is associated with decreased nucleosome occupancy at the transcription start site as indicated by enhanced DNase hypersensitivity. Additionally, we systematically and quantitatively demonstrated that the CpG islands' enrichment in HKGs transcription start sites (TSS) and their depletion in TEGs TSS. Histone methylation patterns differ significantly between HKGs and TEGs, suggesting that methylation contributes to the differential expression patterns as well.ConclusionWe have compiled a set of high quality HKGs that should provide higher and more consistent expression when used as references in laboratory experiments than currently used HKGs. The comparison of genomic features between HKGs and TEGs shows that HKGs are more conserved than TEGs in terms of functions, expression pattern and polymorphisms. In addition, our results identify chromatin structure and epigenetic features of HKGs and TEGs that are likely to play an important role in regulating their strikingly different expression patterns.

Project description:BackgroundTranscription factors (TFs) and miRNAs are essential for the regulation of gene expression; however, the global view of human gene regulatory networks remains poorly understood. For example, how is the expression of so many genes regulated by limited cohorts of regulators and how are genes differentially expressed in different tissues despite the genetic code being the same in all tissues?ResultsWe analyzed the network properties of housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in gene regulatory networks from seven human tissues. Our results show that different classes of genes behave quite differently in these networks. Tissue-specific miRNAs show a higher average target number compared with non-tissue specific miRNAs, which indicates that tissue-specific miRNAs tend to regulate different sets of targets. Tissue-specific TFs exhibit higher in-degree, out-degree, cluster coefficient and betweenness values, indicating that they occupy central positions in the regulatory network and that they transfer genetic information from upstream genes to downstream genes more quickly than other TFs. Housekeeping TFs tend to have higher cluster coefficients compared with other genes that are neither housekeeping nor tissue specific, indicating that housekeeping TFs tend to regulate their targets synergistically. Several topological properties of disease-associated miRNAs and genes were found to be significantly different from those of non-disease-associated miRNAs and genes.ConclusionsTissue-specific miRNAs, TFs and disease genes have particular topological properties within the transcriptional regulatory networks of the seven human tissues examined. The tendency of tissue-specific miRNAs to regulate different sets of genes shows that a particular tissue-specific miRNA and its target gene set may form a regulatory module to execute particular functions in the process of tissue differentiation. The regulatory patterns of tissue-specific TFs reflect their vital role in regulatory networks and their importance to biological functions in their respective tissues. The topological differences between disease and non-disease genes may aid the discovery of new disease genes or drug targets. Determining the network properties of these regulatory factors will help define the basic principles of human gene regulation and the molecular mechanisms of disease.

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Housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in mouse tissues.

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Housekeeping and tissue-specific genes in mouse tissues.

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