昆虫热激转录因子的研究进展

Research progress on heat shock transcription factors in insects

昆虫在遭受环境胁迫或在滞育等生理状态下能够诱导机体产生热激蛋白,这些热激蛋白的转录激活通常由热激转录因子(heat shock transcription factor, HSF)控制。HSF是生物体内广泛存在的一类转录因子,其在植物和哺乳动物中数量众多,但据报道许多昆虫体内只有HSF的单个基因。在正常条件下,HSF常以非活性蛋白的形态存在,但在机体应激时HSF被激活,然后转移到细胞核内与靶基因中的特定结构域序列结合,最终激活靶基因的转录,从而提高机体耐受性。本文综述了昆虫HSF的基本结构、转录调控以及功能的研究进展,以加深对HSF在昆虫胁迫响应机制中调控作用的认识,并为农林害虫防治提供新的思路。

Insects are capable of inducing the production of heat shock proteins when exposed to environmental stresses or under specific physiological conditions such as diapause. The transcriptional activation of heat shock proteins is usually controlled by the heat shock transcription factor(HSF), a class of transcription factors that are widely present in the organism. There are numerous HSF genes in plants and mammalian species, while previous studies suggested that many insects only had single HSF gene. Under normal conditions, HSF proteins are often present in the inactive form in cells, and they are activated upon shock, and then transferred to the nucleus, where they bind to specific functional domains of target genes and eventually activate the transcription of target genes to improve the tolerance of the whole organism. This paper reviewed the research progress on the basic structure,transcriptional regulation, and biological function of HSF in insects to deepen the understanding of the regulatory role of HSF in stress response mechanisms of insects, and provide new ideas for agroforestry pest control.