Heat Shock-Induced Transcriptional and Translational Arrest in Mammalian Cells

The heat shock response is a highly conserved cellular stress response pathway that protects cells against stress-induced damages. The heat shock response is characterized by the activation of the heat shock factor, a transcription factor, which in turn regulate the expression of heat shock proteins which help the cells to recover from the stress-induced damages. While the mechanism behind the activation of heat shock factor and the expression of heat shock proteins are well studied, our understanding on the other aspects of the heat shock response pathway – mainly the global suppression of transcriptional and the translational processes – has been very limited. Thus, this chapter would focus more on the recent studies elucidating the mechanism behind the heat shock-induced transcriptional and post-transcriptional repression of gene expression. Given the importance of the stress response pathways in cell survival, the chapter would focus on the discoveries made in the mammalian systems and their impact on human health and disease.