title: Essential genes on metabolic maps.
abstract: Within the past five years genome-scale gene essentiality data sets have been published for ten diverse bacterial species. These data are a rich source of information about cellular networks that we are only beginning to explore. The analysis of these data, very heterogeneous in nature, is a challenging task. Even the definition of 'essential genes' in various genome-scale studies varies from genes 'absolutely required for survival' to those 'strongly contributing to fitness' and robust competitive growth. A comparative analysis of gene essentiality across multiple organisms based on projection of experimentally observed essential genes to functional roles in a collection of metabolic pathways and subsystems is emerging as a powerful tool of systems biology.
authors.affiliation: Fellowship for Interpretation of Genomes, Burr Ridge, IL 60527, USA. sveta@thefig.info
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gerdes
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubal
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fonstein
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Osterman
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020043:Genes, Essential / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics*; D008954:Models, Biological; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*