Heat Shock Proteins: Functions and Role in Adaptation to Hyperthermia

The results are generalized of many-year studies into the adaptive role of heat shock proteins in different animals, including the representatives of cold- and warm-blooded species that inhabit regions with different thermal conditions. Adaptive evolution of the response to hyperthermia can lead to different results depending on the species. The thermal threshold of induction of the heat shock proteins in desert thermophylic species is, as a rule, higher than in the moderate climate species. In addition, thermoresistant species are often characterized by a certain level of heat shock proteins in cells even at a physiologically normal temperature. Although adaptation to hyperthermia is achieved in most cases without changes in the number of heat shock genes, they can be amplified in some cases in termophylic species. The role of mobile elements in evolution of the heat shock genes was shown and approach was developed for directional introduction of mutations in the promoter regions of these genes.