Novel aspects of heat shock factors: DNA recognition, chromatin modulation and gene expression

Heat shock factor (HSF) is an evolutionarily conserved stress-response regulator that activates the transcription of heat shock protein genes, whose products maintain protein homeostasis under normal physiological conditions, as well as under conditions of stress. The promoter regions of the target...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The FEBS journal 2010-10, Vol.277 (20), p.4140-4149
Main Authors: Sakurai, Hiroshi, Enoki, Yasuaki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry
Chromatin
Chromatin - metabolism
DNA - metabolism
Gene Expression
heat shock element
Heat shock proteins
heat shock transcription factor
Heat-Shock Proteins - genetics
histone
Humans
protein-DNA interactions
Stress
Yeasts
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Summary:Heat shock factor (HSF) is an evolutionarily conserved stress-response regulator that activates the transcription of heat shock protein genes, whose products maintain protein homeostasis under normal physiological conditions, as well as under conditions of stress. The promoter regions of the target genes contain a heat shock element consisting of multiple inverted repeats of the pentanucleotide sequence nGAAn. A single HSF of yeast can bind to heat shock elements that differ in the configuration of the nGAAn units and can regulate the transcription of various genes that function not only in stress resistance, but also in a broad range of biological processes. Mammalian cells have four HSF family members involved in different, but in some cases similar, biological functions, including stress resistance, cell differentiation and development. Mammalian HSF family members exhibit differential specificity for different types of heat shock elements, which, together with cell type-specific expression of HSFs is important in determining the target genes of each HSF. This minireview focuses on the molecular mechanisms of DNA recognition, chromatin modulation and gene expression by yeast and mammalian HSFs.
ISSN:1742-464X
1742-4658
DOI:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2010.07829.x