title: Bacterial cold-shock proteins.
abstract: Members of a family of small cold-shock proteins (CSPs) are induced during bacterial cell response to a temperature decrease. Here we review available data about the structure, molecular properties, mechanism of induction and possible functions of CSPs. CSPs preferentially bind single-stranded RNA and DNA and appear to play an important role in cell physiology under both normal and cold-shock conditions. Although the function of CSPs in cold-shock adaptation has not yet been elucidated in detail, a number of experimental evidences suggests that CSPs bind messenger RNA (mRNA) and regulate ribosomal translation, rate of mRNA degradation and termination of transcription.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033, USA.
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Ermolenko
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Makhatadze
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins