Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 27, 2025
12:38
Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a Model System to Study Protein Homeostasis in a Multicellular Organism
Published on: December 18, 2013
6.3K
Proteome plasticity in response to persistent environmental change.
Matthew Domnauer1, Fan Zheng2, Liying Li3
1Buck Institute for Research on Aging, 8001 Redwood Blvd., Novato, CA 94945, USA; USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90191, USA.
Molecular Cell
|July 22, 2021
Summary
Organisms adapt to long-term heat by altering protein conformation and localization, not just chaperone response. This conformational plasticity enables new protein functions under enduring environmental stress.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Cellular Biology
- Environmental Adaptation
Background:
- Organisms must adapt to environmental temperature fluctuations.
- Acute temperature changes trigger cellular stress responses like protein refolding.
- Long-term adaptation mechanisms to temperature change are poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how organisms adapt to long-term high temperature.
- To explore proteome-wide changes in response to sustained heat stress.
- To understand the role of protein conformational changes in adaptation.
Main Methods:
- Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) model system.
- Analysis of proteome-wide changes under long-term heat.
- Investigation of protein conformational alterations using Fet3p as a model.
- Assessment of thermostability, localization, and function of conformationally distinct proteins.
Main Results:
- Budding yeast shifts from chaperone induction to reducing temperature-sensitive proteins.
- A significant portion of the proteome is re-localized under heat stress.
- Many proteins adopt alternative conformations in response to long-term heat.
- Conformational changes in proteins like Fet3p correlate with altered thermostability, localization, and function.
Conclusions:
- Long-term heat adaptation involves more than chaperone induction.
- Protein conformational plasticity is a key mechanism for adapting to enduring environmental changes.
- Altered protein conformations can lead to novel biophysical properties and cellular functions.
Related Concept Videos
01:10Transcription
151.4K
Overview
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
Transcription Can Produce Different Kinds...
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
Transcription Can Produce Different Kinds...
151.4K
01:30Other Stress Responses in Bacteria
133
Bacteria have global regulatory systems that control several types of stress mechanisms. These include Pho regulon and the heat shock response, which are essential systems for environmental adaptation, such as nutrient limitation and proteotoxic stress. The Pho regulon and the heat shock response exemplify bacterial resilience, enabling rapid adaptation to fluctuating environmental conditions.Pho RegulonBacteria require phosphorus for essential cellular processes, including nucleic acid...
133
01:16Transduction
385
Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome...
385
01:23Stringent Response in E. coli
100
Bacterial growth is closely tied to nutrient availability, with cells proliferating exponentially under favorable conditions and entering a stationary phase when resources become scarce. This transition is mediated by a regulatory mechanism known as the stringent response, which allows bacteria to adapt to nutrient deprivation by modulating gene expression and metabolic activity.During nutrient scarcity, intracellular amino acid levels decline. It results in the accumulation of uncharged tRNAs...
100
01:01Neuroplasticity
977
Neuroplasticity reflects the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt and evolve, responding dynamically to learning, experiences, or injury by reorganizing its neural circuitry. This reorganization involves creating new neural connections and refining old ones through a series of biological processes that contribute to the brain's lifelong development and adaptability.
977
01:33Proteomics
8.6K
A proteome is the entire set of proteins that a cell type produces. We can study proteomes using the knowledge of genomes because genes code for mRNAs, and the mRNAs encode proteins. Although mRNA analysis is a step in the right direction, not all mRNAs are translated into proteins.
Proteomics is the study of proteomes' function. It involves the large-scale systematic study of the proteome to denote the protein complement expressed by a genome. Scientist Mark Wilkins coined the term...
Proteomics is the study of proteomes' function. It involves the large-scale systematic study of the proteome to denote the protein complement expressed by a genome. Scientist Mark Wilkins coined the term...
8.6K