Monitoring of the Heat Shock Response with a Real-Time Luciferase Reporter

Abstract

The heat shock response (HSR) is a cellular mechanism for counteracting acute proteotoxic stress. In eukaryotes, transcriptional activation of the HSR is regulated by heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Activation of HSF1 induces the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) that function as molecular chaperones to fold and maintain the three-dimensional structure of misfolded proteins. The regulation of the degree and duration of the HSR is controlled by multiple biochemical mechanisms that include posttranslational modification of HSF1 and numerous protein–protein interactions. In this chapter, we describe a method to evaluate the activation and deactivation of the HSR at the transcriptional level using a short half-life luciferase reporter assay. This assay can be used to further characterize the HSR or as a screen for small molecule inducers, amplifiers, or repressors.