Molecular Chaperones and HSPs in Sugarcane and Eucalyptus

Abstract

The sessile existence of plants makes these organisms more exposed to unfavorable environmental changes than animals and more likely to have evolved sophisticated ways to combat stresses. Therefore, knowledge about the network of molecular chaperones and heat shock proteins (HSPs) in plants is of great interest not only to improve agricultural production but also to enhance our understanding of the cellular protein-folding process. In this chapter we will review the use of bioinformatics to identify and annotate 5′EST-contigs belonging to molecular chaperones within plant genomes, with an emphasis on sugarcane and eucalyptus. The chapter will show that information concerning the diversity and quantity of expressed mRNAs under diverse developmental and environmental conditions has led to new insights on specific proteins’ importance and activities in response to environmental conditions sensed by these organisms. The general findings are as follows: Chaperone and stress-related protein genes are abundantly expressed and have ample diversity. Cytoplasmic chaperones have both higher expression and greater diversity than those from other cellular compartments. Findings regarding cDNA cloning and protein purification and characterization will also be discussed.