title: Small heat shock protein expression and functions during development.
abstract: The expression of small heat shock proteins is tightly regulated during development in multiple organisms. As housekeeping proteins, small heat shock proteins help protect cells from apoptosis, stabilize the cytoskeleton and contribute to proteostasis. Consistently, depletion of one small heat shock protein is usually not detrimental due to a certain level of redundancy between the functions of each small heat shock protein. However, while their stress-induced expression is regulated by heat shock factors, their constitutive expression is under the control of other specific transcription factors, suggesting the existence of very specialized functions. This review focuses on the expression patterns and functions of small heat shock proteins in various organisms during development. This article is part of a Directed Issue entitled: Small HSPs in physiology and pathology.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Genetics, Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Biochemistry and Pathology, Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes and PROTEO, Université Laval, Québec, Canada G1V 0A6.
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morrow
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Tanguay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015870:Gene Expression; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D050888:Heat-Shock Proteins, Small / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D050888:Heat-Shock Proteins, Small; D010940:Plant Proteins