Polyol pools in Aspergillus niger

Abstract The mechanism of adaptation of bacteria to survive at elevated temperature in the human host and the expression of heat-shock proteins in response to stress was examined by labelling with [³⁵S]methionine. An increase in culture temperature from 26 °C to 37 °C induced expression of certain bacterial proteins (70 and 60 kDa). Heat shock at 40 °C, cold shock (10 °C), ethanol treatment or arsenite treatment also led to an increased expression of heat shock proteins of 70 and 60 kDa. Actinomycin D completely blocked the induction, indicating that transcription is required for the overexpression of stress proteins in Leuconostoc mesenteroides . N-terminal sequence analysis showed that these proteins were homologous to the highly conserved chaperone proteins DnaK and GroEL of Escherichia coli , respectively.