[Kinetics of heat shock response upon disfunction of general transcription factor (HSF)].

The heat shock transcription factor (HSF) is a universal activator of hsp gene expression in eukaryotes. A temperature sensitive Drosophila melanogaster strain (hsf4) with a mutation in the hsfgene was originally described as a strain lacking the transcription of hsp genes in response to heat shock. Our results demonstrated that physiological function of HSF4 is not fully abrogated after heat exposure and is able to recover even after severe heat stress, causing the induction of hsp gene expression. We have studied the kinetics of accumulation and degradation of hsp gene products at transcriptional and translational levels and shown that induction of hsp genes, particularly hsp68, in mutant strain is weaker than that in the wild type. Thus, despite the fact that the HSF4 causes a delayed ac- tivation of hsp, response to heat shock in hsf4 strain remains defective.