hsp82 is one of the most highly conserved and abundantly synthesized heat shock proteins of eucaryotic cells. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains two closely related genes in the HSP82 gene family. HSC82 was expressed constitutively at a very high level and was moderately induced by high temperatures. HSP82 was expressed constitutively at a much lower level and was more strongly induced by heat. Site-directed disruption mutations were produced in both genes. Cells homozygous for both mutations did not grow at any temperature. Cells carrying other combinations of the HSP82 and HSC82 mutations grew well at 25 degrees C, but their ability to grow at higher temperatures varied with gene copy number. Thus, HSP82 and HSC82 constitute an essential gene family in yeast cells. Although the two proteins had different patterns of expression, they appeared to have equivalent functions; growth at higher temperatures required higher concentrations of either protein. Biochemical analysis of hsp82 from vertebrate cells suggests that the protein binds to a variety of other cellular proteins, keeping them inactive until they have reached their proper intracellular location or have received the proper activation signal. We speculate that the reason cells require higher concentrations of hsp82 or hsc82 for growth at higher temperatures is to maintain proper levels of complex formation with these other proteins.

Heat-shock proteins (hsps) are induced by many types of stress. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a mutation in the HSP104 gene, a member of the highly conserved hsplOO gene family, reduces the ability of log-phase fermenting cells to withstand high temperatures after mild, conditioning pretreatments. Here, we examine the expression of hsplO4 and its importance for survival under many different conditions. HsplO4 is expressed at a higher level in respiring cells than in fermenting cells and is required for the unusually high basal thermotolerance of respiring cells. Its expression in stationary phase cells and spores is crucial for the naturally high thermotolerance of these cell types and for their long-term viability at low temperatures. The protein is of critical importance in tolerance to ethanol and of moderate importance in tolerance to sodium arsenite. Thus, the hsplO4 mutation establishes the validity of a long-standing hypothesis in the heat-shock field, namely, that hsps have broadly protective functions. Further, that a single protein is responsible for tolerance to heat, ethanol, arsenite and long-term storage in the cold indicates that the underlying causes of lethality are similar in an extraordinary variety of circumstances. Finally, the protein is of little or no importance in tolerance to copper and cadmium, suggesting that the lethal lesions produced by these agents are fundamentally different from those produced by heat.

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The phenotypes of single HsplO4 and Hsp7O mutants of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae provide no clue that these proteins are functionally related. Mutation of the HSP104 gene severely reduces the ability of cells to survive short exposures to extreme temperatures (thermotolerance) but has no effect on growth rates. On the other hand, mutations in the genes that encode Hsp7O proteins have significant effects on growth rates but do not reduce thermotolerance. The absence of a thermotolerance defect in S. cerevisiae Hsp7O mutants is puzzling, since the protein clearly plays an important role in thermotolerance in a variety of other organisms.