Evolution of heat‐shock protein expression underlying adaptive responses to environmental stress

Abstract

Heat-shock proteins (Hsps) and their cognates are primary mitigators of cell stress. With increasingly severe impacts of climate change and other human modifications of the biosphere, the ability of the heat-shock system to affect evolutionary fitness in environments outside the laboratory and to evolve in response is topic of growing importance. Since the last major reviews, several advances have occurred. First, demonstrations of the heat-shock response outside the laboratory now include many additional taxa and environments. Many of these demonstrations are only correlative, however. More importantly, technical advances in "omic" quantification of nucleic acids and proteins, genomewide association analysis, and manipulation of genes and their expression have enabled the field to move beyond correlation. Several consequent advances are already evident: The pathway from heat-shock gene expression to stress tolerance in nature can be extremely complex, mediated through multiple biological processes and systems, and even multiple species. The underlying genes are more numerous, diverse and variable than previously appreciated, especially with respect to their regulatory variation and epigenetic changes. The impacts and limitations (e.g., due to trade-offs) of natural selection on these genes have become more obvious and better established. At last, as evolutionary capacitors, Hsps may have distinctive impacts on the evolution of other genes and ecological consequences.

A long noncoding RNA acts as a post-transcriptional regulator of heat shock protein 70 kDa synthesis in the cold hardyDiamesa tonsaunder heat shock

“…Translation is known to drain more cellular energy than transcription [57]. The synthesis of HSPs, and their function as ATP-consuming chaperones in protein folding reactions, can add considerably to the ATP demands of the cell, explaining the repression of basal transcription and translation [21]. Furthermore, our findings emphasize that transcription alone is not necessarily a reliable final readout of HSR in D. tonsa .…”

Climate explains population divergence in drought-induced plasticity of functional traits and gene expression in a South AfricanProtea

“…Gene network 13 is a module related to homeostasis and the best representative of this module shows homology to an Arabidopsis heat shock protein (AT5G59720). Heat shock proteins are shown to be involved in responses to stresses such as heat, cold, UV radiation, salt and drought (Chen et al 2018). Under control conditions, plants from wetter source sites express genes in this network less compared to populations from drier sites, and show a bigger up-regulation, eventually reaching similar levels of expression for all populations under drought.…”

Editorial 2019

“…() explore how climate change is impacting organisms in such environments, specifically focusing on the role of the epigenome. They comprehensively review the kinds of epigenetic modifications seen in biota from freshwater systems, and then connect epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, to evolutionary adaption of species to climate change. In the light of significant developments since the late 1990s, a review of heat‐shock protein (Hsp) expression by Chen, Feder, and Kang () provides a necessary update for those studying evolutionary fitness and cellular stress. Their review of Hsps, which function as molecular chaperones for organisms, discusses technical and conceptual updates over the past decade, including the effects of climate change on Hsps, as well as the impact of whole‐genome sequencing on elucidating Hsp duplication and diversification. Cayuela et al () work to bridge conceptual gaps and facilitate conversation between demographers and population geneticists, both of whom are interested in dispersal and its effects on populations.…”

“…8. In the light of significant developments since the late 1990s, a review of heat-shock protein (Hsp) expression by Chen, Feder, and Kang (2018) provides a necessary update for those studying evolutionary fitness and cellular stress. Their review of Hsps, which function as molecular chaperones for organisms, discusses technical and conceptual updates over the past decade, including the effects of climate change on Hsps, as well as the impact of whole-genome sequencing on elucidating Hsp duplication and diversification.…”