Application of heat shock protein expression for detecting natural adaptation and exposure to stress in natural populations

Abstract

Abstract Heat-shock proteins (HSPs) play an undisputed role for maintaining cellular functioning under environmental challenges and protein denaturing conditions. Compelling evidence points to an evolutionary important role of HSPs and a strict evolutionary control of these proteins as a balance between benefits and costs. While there is a great potential for using HSP expression for detecting natural adaptation and exposure to stress in natural populations, some obstacles and key issues await investigation. From an ecological perspective these key issues needs to be resolved in order to fully appreciate the complex responses and adaptations to stress and to increase our understanding of HSPs and other molecular chaperones for stress adaptation and potential use as biomarkers. Here, the current knowledge and understanding of HSPs is reviewed and a number of key issues including the interpretation of elevated HSP levels, the complications of extrapolating between laboratory and field conditions, the effects of choice of traits and methodology and the larger intra-and extracellular networks of interactions that HSPs participate in are discussed.