New insights on human essential genes based on integrated analysis

Abstract

Essential genes are those whose functions govern critical processes that sustain life in the organism. Comprehensive understanding of human essential genes could enable breakthroughs in biology and medicine. Recently, there has been a rapid proliferation of technologies for identifying and investigating the functions of human essential genes. Here, according to gene essentiality, we present a global analysis for comprehensively and systematically elucidating the genetic and regulatory characteristics of human essential genes. We explain why these genes are essential from the genomic, epigenomic, and proteomic perspectives, and we discuss their evolutionary and embryonic developmental properties. Importantly, we find that essential human genes can be used as markers to guide cancer treatment. We have developed an interactive web server, the Human Essential Genes Interactive Analysis Platform (HEGIAP)