Early Activation of Heat Shock Genes in H₂O₂-Treated Drosophila Cells

Abstract

Drosophila cells of a diploid clone derived from line Kc were treated with 1 mM H₂O₂, for 1 to 20 minutes. Dot blot and Northern blot analysis of RNAs extracted from control and treated cells showed that the transcriptional activation of the 6 heat-shock genes tested was early, and maximal within 5 minutes of H₂O₂ treatment. Analysis of the kinetics of induction of the heat-shock proteins (hsps) after an exposure to H₂O₂ of 2 or 5 minutes, followed by removal, suggests that this brief treatment was sufficient to trigger the synthesis of all the hsps, which was maximal 1.5 to 3h after this short H₂O₂ treatment.

Key Words:

• Heat shock proteins
• induction
• reactive oxygen species