Molecular chaperones in ectothermic marine animals: biochemical function and gene expression.

The intertidal zone has historically functioned as an important natural laboratory for testing ideas about how physical factors such as temperature influence organismal physiology and in turn influence the distribution patterns of organisms. Key to our understanding of how the physical environment helps structure organismal distribution is the identification of physiological processes that have ecological relevance. We have focused on biochemical- and molecular-level physiology that would contribute to thermal tolerance and maintenance of a functional intracellular protein pool in the face of extreme and fluctuating environmental temperatures. Past research has addressed processes central to protein homeostasis (e.g., protein ubiquitination) and the molecular ecology of molecular chaperones, a.k.a. heat shock proteins (Hsps), in ectothermic animals. In this presentation, we focus on two new developments regarding the biology of heat shock proteins as molecular chaperones in intertidal organisms. First, we present data on the functional characteristics of the transcriptional factor, HSF1 and discuss how these data relate to the plasticity of Hsp gene expression observed in intertidal organisms in nature. Second, we present data on the biochemical function of heat shock proteins purified from our non-model study organisms and discuss the temperature relationships of these molecules as they assist in protein folding in situ.