Evidence that glutathione participates in the induction of a stress protein.

A step in the induction of a 30- to 35-kD stress protein may be the reaction of chemical inducers with glutathione. Effective inducers are sulfhydryl reagents. Further, a comparison of three reagents, 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, diethylmaleate, and N-ethylmaleimide, indicates that the first two, which have considerable selectivity for glutathione, are strong inducers of the stress protein but the third, which is much more reactive with protein sulfhydryls, is either a poor or ineffective inducer. A decrease in cellular glutathione does not appear to be inductive, however. An increase in modified glutathione remains as a possible signal for the induction of this stress protein.