title: Towards a compendium of essential genes - From model organisms to synthetic lethality in cancer cells.
abstract: Essential genes are defined by their requirement to sustain life in cells or whole organisms. The systematic identification of essential gene sets not only allows insights into the fundamental building blocks of life, but may also provide novel therapeutic targets in oncology. The discovery of essential genes has been tightly linked to the development and deployment of various screening technologies. Here, we describe how gene essentiality was addressed in different eukaryotic model organisms, covering a range of organisms from yeast to mouse. We describe how increasing knowledge of evolutionarily divergent genomes facilitate identification of gene essentiality across species. Finally, the impact of gene essentiality and synthetic lethality on cancer research and the clinical translation of screening results are highlighted.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cell and Molecular Biology , Division of Signaling and Functional Genomics, Medical Faculty Mannheim, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University , Heidelberg , Germany and.|b Department of Medicine II , Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Hospital Mannheim, Heidelberg University , Mannheim , Germany.
authors.forename: Tianzuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cell and Molecular Biology , Division of Signaling and Functional Genomics, Medical Faculty Mannheim, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University , Heidelberg , Germany and.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boutros
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D020043:Genes, Essential; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; Cancer research; RNAi; essential genes; genetic interaction; screening; synthetic lethality