Synthesis and thermotolerance of heat shock proteins in campylobacter jejuni

Campylobacter jejuni에서 고온충격 단백질의 합성과 내열성

The heat shock responses of Campylobacter jejuni were studied by examination of their survival rates and synthesis of heat shocd proteins. When C. jejuni cells were treated at the sublethal temperatures of 48.deg.C for 30 minutes, most of the cells maintained their viabilities and synthesized the heat shock proteins of 90, 73, and 66 kD in molecular weight. By the method of two-dimensional electrophoresis, the heat shock proteins of C. jejuni were identified to be Hsp90, Hsp73, and Hsp66. During the heat shock at 48.deg.C, the heat shock proteins were induced from about 5 minutes after the heat shock treatment. Their synthesis was continued upto 30 minutes, but remarkably retarded after 50 minutes. When C. jejune cells were heat shocked at 51.deg.C for 30 minutes, the survival rates of the cells were decreased by about $10^{3}$ fold and synthesis of heat shock proteins and normal proteins was also generally retarded. The cells exposed to 55.deg.C for 30 minutes died off by more than $10^{5}$ cells and the new protein synthesis was not observed. But when C. jejuni cells were heat-shocked at the sublethal temperature of 48.deg.C for 15 to 20 minutes and then were exposed at the lethal temperature of 55.deg.C for 30 minutes, their viabilities were higher than those exposed at 55.deg.C for 30 minutes without pre-heat shock at 48.deg.C. Therefore, the heat shock proteins synthesized at the sublethal temperature of 48.deg.C in C. jejuni were thought to be responsible for thermotolerance. However, when C. jejuni cells heat-shocked at various ranges of sublethal and lethal temperatures were placed back to the optimum temperature of 42.deg.C, the multiplication patterns of the cells pretreated at different temperatures were not much different each other.