Human gene essentiality information

Dataset information

This dataset provides information on gene essentiality for humans. Essential genes are genes that are critical for the survival of an organism. They are of particular importance because of many applications, such as studying the robustness of biological systems, defining a minimal genome/organism, and identifying effective therapeutic targets for diseases.

Essentiality is not an intrinsic property of a gene. Instead, it depends on a variety of factors including the function and expression pattern of the gene and the current environment of the organism. Thus, a gene might be essential in one situation but non-essential in another environment in which the organism lives. This dataset collects information on essentiality statuses of genes, which were experimentally tested across different environments. A gene is considered to be essential only if it has been found critical for the organism's survival in the majority of tested environments.

References

• OGEE v2: an update of the online gene essentiality database with special focus on differentially essential genes in human cancer cell lines. W.-H. Chen, G. Lu, X. Chen, X.-M. Zhao and P. Bork. Nucleic Acids Research. 2017.
  

• Younger genes are less likely to be essential than older genes, and duplicates are less likely to be essential than singletons of the same age. W.-H. Chen, K. Trachana, M. J. Lercher and P. Bork. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2012.
  

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