• anossia
• Arabidopsis thaliana
• heat shock factors
• heat shock proteins
• HsfA2
• microarray

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are involved in the physiological responses of all living organisms to a large variety of abiotic stress. Anoxic stress is charachterized by a decreasing in the energy and redox state of the cell, and in the production of oxygen reactive species. Hsps and other genes typically related to heat shock appear to be importantly expressed following oxygen deprivation % (both at the protein and at the transcript level)
and a significant overlapping between anoxic and heat shock response in the transcriptomic response exists. Upstream most of this genes heat shock transcription factor A2, an important transcription factor involved in acclimation to heat stress and in many different abiotic stress, seems to be a key regulator in the anoxic tolerance, as Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings tolerance is altered negatively or positively respectively in plants deficient or overexpressing this TF. We suggests that at least part of importance of hsfA2 and some heat shock related genes is related to the defense from oxidative damage due to the reactive oxygen species produced during anoxic or hypoxic stress.