The Housekeeping Gene

A few days ago I googled “housekeeping,” probably hoping to find something interesting or meaningful about my own old, dull resistance to basic maintenance, that is, washing, dusting, sweeping, repairing — the details need not detain us here. I “discovered” the housekeeping gene.

The concept of “housekeeping gene” has been used for four decades but remains loosely defined. Housekeeping genes are commonly described as “essential for cellular existence regardless of their specific function in the tissue or organism”, and “stably expressed irrespective of tissue type, developmental stage, cell cycle state, or external signal”.  

It doesn’t change anything about the immediate situation, certainly, but maybe it does dignify the problem a little. I am resisting something.  It has an identity: maintenance IS identifiable, something particular among the many, many systems that have evolved over a very long time to keep life forms going.