Is there a database for housekeeping genes?

Question

[BioinfGuru]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if there is a curated source of housekeeping genes?

I'm analysing pig bulk rnaseq data and want to run RUVg.

Thank you. Kenneth

Answer 1

[pinheirofabiano]

housekeeping is a term that was created to group genes/proteins that are widely expressed, whose expression keeps the same regardless of the biological conditions, but this definition is unreliable.. if you really want to be sure about your results, better try two or more "housekeeping" molecules.. i don't believe this kind of term can be curated...

[BioinfGuru]

All I have is the rnaseq data, so can you explain (or refer me to resources that can explain) what "housekeeping molecules" are in rnaseq data?

I believe the idea of housekeeping genes is reliable but the papers that report them may not be. For example a recent paper identifying HK genes quantified with fpkm (why is this still a thing?) and made no attempt to normalise across multiple datasets from different centers. Not going to out them with the reference.