scholarly journals Transcriptional Modulation of Heat-Shock Protein Gene Expression

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasis Stephanou ◽  
David S. Latchman

Heat-shock proteins (Hsps) are molecular chaperones that are ubiquitously expressed but are also induced in cells exposed to stressful stimuli. Hsps have been implicated in the induction and propagation of several diseases. This paper focuses on regulatory factors that control the transcription of the genes encoding Hsps. We also highlight how distinct transcription factors are able to interact and modulate Hsps in different pathological states. Thus, a better understanding of the complex signaling pathways regulating Hsp expression may lead to novel therapeutic targets.

Microbiology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 160 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hema Rajaram ◽  
Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia ◽  
Shree Kumar Apte

Cyanobacteria constitute a morphologically diverse group of oxygenic photoautotrophic microbes which range from unicellular to multicellular, and non-nitrogen-fixing to nitrogen-fixing types. Sustained long-term exposure to changing environmental conditions, during their three billion years of evolution, has presumably led to their adaptation to diverse ecological niches. The ability to maintain protein conformational homeostasis (folding–misfolding–refolding or aggregation–degradation) by molecular chaperones holds the key to the stress adaptability of cyanobacteria. Although cyanobacteria possess several genes encoding DnaK and DnaJ family proteins, these are not the most abundant heat-shock proteins (Hsps), as is the case in other bacteria. Instead, the Hsp60 family of proteins, comprising two phylogenetically conserved proteins, and small Hsps are more abundant during heat stress. The contribution of the Hsp100 (ClpB) family of proteins and of small Hsps in the unicellular cyanobacteria (Synechocystis and Synechococcus) as well as that of Hsp60 proteins in the filamentous cyanobacteria (Anabaena) to thermotolerance has been elucidated. The regulation of chaperone genes by several cis-elements and trans-acting factors has also been well documented. Recent studies have demonstrated novel transcriptional and translational (mRNA secondary structure) regulatory mechanisms in unicellular cyanobacteria. This article provides an insight into the heat-shock response: its organization, and ecophysiological regulation and role of molecular chaperones, in unicellular and filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial strains.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Bar-Lavan ◽  
Netta Shemesh ◽  
Anat Ben-Zvi

Quality control is an essential aspect of cellular function, with protein folding quality control being carried out by molecular chaperones, a diverse group of highly conserved proteins that specifically identify misfolded conformations. Molecular chaperones are thus required to support proteins affected by expressed polymorphisms, mutations, intrinsic errors in gene expression, chronic insult or the acute effects of the environment, all of which contribute to a flux of metastable proteins. In this article, we review the four main chaperone families in metazoans, namely Hsp60 (where Hsp is heat-shock protein), Hsp70, Hsp90 and sHsps (small heat-shock proteins), as well as their co-chaperones. Specifically, we consider the structural and functional characteristics of each family and discuss current models that attempt to explain how chaperones recognize and act together to protect or recover aberrant proteins.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (19) ◽  
pp. 5355-5374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dandan Zang ◽  
Jingxin Wang ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Zhujun Liu ◽  
Yucheng Wang

Abstract Plant heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) are involved in heat and other abiotic stress responses. However, their functions in salt tolerance are little known. In this study, we characterized the function of a HSF from Arabidopsis, AtHSFA7b, in salt tolerance. AtHSFA7b is a nuclear protein with transactivation activity. ChIP-seq combined with an RNA-seq assay indicated that AtHSFA7b preferentially binds to a novel cis-acting element, termed the E-box-like motif, to regulate gene expression; it also binds to the heat shock element motif. Under salt conditions, AtHSFA7b regulates its target genes to mediate serial physiological changes, including maintaining cellular ion homeostasis, reducing water loss rate, decreasing reactive oxygen species accumulation, and adjusting osmotic potential, which ultimately leads to improved salt tolerance. Additionally, most cellulose synthase-like (CSL) and cellulose synthase (CESA) family genes were inhibited by AtHSFA7b; some of them were randomly selected for salt tolerance characterization, and they were mainly found to negatively modulate salt tolerance. By contrast, some transcription factors (TFs) were induced by AtHSFA7b; among them, we randomly identified six TFs that positively regulate salt tolerance. Thus, AtHSFA7b serves as a transactivator that positively mediates salinity tolerance mainly through binding to the E-box-like motif to regulate gene expression.


1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 4599-4602 ◽  
Author(s):  
U K Srinivas ◽  
C J Revathi ◽  
M R Das

An examination of heat-induced expression of proteins in tissues from adult and embryonic liver in rats shows that albumin, which is constitutively expressed in adult liver and is not synthesized in embryos before 16 days of gestation, appears in liver cells at earlier stages of development upon heat shock. On the basis of available evidence for the expression of heat shock proteins at distinct stages of development and on the basis of our findings, it may be argued that there could be common molecular events taking place during development and as a result of heat shock. We suggest also that one of the consequences of heat shock could be an internal change of pH within the cell which, in turn, might trigger alterations in gene expression.


1995 ◽  
Vol 348 (1323) ◽  
pp. 107-112 ◽  

The recent discovery of molecular chaperones and their functions has changed dramatically our view of the processes underlying the folding of proteins in vivo . Rather than folding spontaneously, most newly synthesized polypeptide chains seem to acquire their native conformations in a reaction mediated by chaperone proteins. Different classes of molecular chaperones, such as the members of the Hsp70 and Hsp60 families of heat-shock proteins, cooperate in a coordinated pathway of cellular protein folding.


1991 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 166-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najma Ali ◽  
Naheed Banu

2012 ◽  
Vol 302 (3) ◽  
pp. H506-H514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingbo Xu ◽  
Bernhard Metzler ◽  
Marjan Jahangiri ◽  
Kaushik Mandal

In response to stress stimuli, mammalian cells activate an ancient signaling pathway leading to the transient expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs). HSPs are a family of proteins serving as molecular chaperones that prevent the formation of nonspecific protein aggregates and assist proteins in the acquisition of their native structures. Physiologically, HSPs play a protective role in the homeostasis of the vessel wall but have an impact on immunoinflammatory processes in pathological conditions involved in the development of atherosclerosis. For instance, some members of HSPs have been shown to have immunoregulatory properties and modification of innate and adaptive response to HSPs, and can protect the vessel wall from the disease. On the other hand, a high degree of sequence homology between microbial and mammalian HSPs, due to evolutionary conservation, carries a risk of misdirected autoimmunity against HSPs expressed on the stressed cells of vascular endothelium. Furthermore, HSPs and anti-HSP antibodies have been shown to elicit production of proinflammatory cytokines. Potential therapeutic use of HSP in prevention of atherosclerosis involves achieving optimal balance between protective and immunogenic effects of HSPs and in the progress of research on vaccination. In this review, we update the progress of studies on HSPs and the integrity of the vessel wall, discuss the mechanism by which HSPs exert their role in the disease development, and highlight the potential clinic translation in the research field.


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