Edited by
A. Graham Pockley
M. Gabriella Santoro

2010

All cellular organisms maintain the ability to mount a heat shock response (HSR) when exposed to elevated temperatures. The HSR is a complex cellular response, although its major essence is the induction by heat shock of several cohorts of proteins, heat shock proteins (HSP) in uniquely large concentrations that mediate resistance to heat killing (Schlessinger, 1994).