Free Access
Issue
Apidologie
Volume 31, Number 4, July-August 2000
Page(s) 487 - 501
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2000141
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2000141

Apidologie 31 (2000) 487-501

Induction of heat shock proteins in the larval fat body of Apis mellifera L. bees

Virginia Maria Lopes Chacon-Almeidaa - Zilá Luz Paulino Simõesb - Márcia Maria Gentile Bitondib

aDepartamento de Genética, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14049-900 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
bDepartamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

(Received 8 September 1999; revised 12 January 2000; accepted 23 February 2000)

Abstract:

Five proteins were expressed in larval honey bee fat bod incubated in vitro in response to heat shock, as shown by SDS-PAGE and fluorography. The large heat shock proteins (82, 70 kDa) were inducible throughout the 5th instar whereas the small ones (29, 26, 16 kDa) were inducible only in certain phases of this instar. The synthesis of these HSPs was accompanied by generalized inhibition of overall protein synthesis and secretion in the culture medium. Fluorograms showed that the 76 and 74 kDa proteins were strongly inhibited by heat treatment. Western blots using a mouse monoclonal antibody against HSP72 and HSC73 permitted the inference that the 70 kDa larval protein accumulated in the honey bee fat body in response to heat shock corresponds to the HSP72 isoform. The Western blots also showed a 70 kDa faint band in fat bodies incubated at the control temperature (34 $^\circ$C). This protein, also detected in incubation media independently of the temperature used, was interpreted as being the constitutively synthesized and secreted HSC73 isoform.


Keywords: heat shock proteins / HSP70 / Apis mellifera / fat body

Correspondence and reprints: Zilá Luz Paulino Simões
E-mail: zlpsimoe@usp.br

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