70 kD stress protein (Hsp70) analysis in living shallow-water benthic foraminifera

Abstract

Hsp70 is a phylogenetically highly conserved protein family present in all eukaryotic organisms tested so far. Its synthesis is induced by proteotoxic stress. The detection of Hsp70 in foraminifera is presented here for the first time. We introduce a standard immunoblotting protocol modified for the detection of Hsp70 in shallow-water benthic foraminifera. Additionally, we showed a temperature-dependent expression pattern of Hsp70 in Ammonia tepida.

Keywords:

• foraminifera
• benthos
• heat shock proteins
• Hsp70
• protein content

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Vera Hemleben for her valuable ideas on the improvement of our method, and Michal Kucera and Ralf Aurahs for their help at an early stage of the manuscript. The authors are grateful to Stefanie Krais for technical support and Annekatrin Enge for her help obtaining the sample material. Particular thanks are due to Christina Beal for linguistic improvements.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark