In: Biology
What is HSP104 Gene responsible for? Be specific and also mention other proteins that your protein may be interacting with?
HSP104 gene stands for Heat Shock Protein 104. This gene is found in baker's yeast i.e Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This gene is responsible for maintaining thermotolerance in yeast. It is particularly responsive during heat stress and aims to protect the cell and cellular components from the damage caused by heat. It also protects the cell in response to arsenite, ethanol etc. It also aims to repair the damaged proteins through resolubilisation, unfolding and dissociation of the same through an ATP dependent process. It also aims to decrease the toxicity of the proteins by minimising/ eliminating the cytoplasmic aggregation of the proteins.
In case of prions, it is particularly resonsible for the dissociation of polypeptides into smaller oligomers. The result is that these prions are then capable to infect the daughter cells of the yeast during stages of cell division i.e mitosis and meiosis.
In this process, the HSP104 gene interacts with other chaperone based proteins like HSP70 & HSP 40. These genes together in association with HSP104 gene helps in refolding of the damaged protein which has been unfolded by the HSP104 gene. The resulting polypeptides are then streamed out through ATP dependent process.