Overexpression of Hsp90 from grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) increases thermal protection against heat stress

With homologous DNA probes, we had screened a grass carp heat shock protein 90 gene (CiHsp90). The full sequence of CiHsp90 cDNA was 2793bp, which could code a 798 amino acids peptide. The phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that CiHsp90 shared the high homology with Zebrafish Grp94. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that CiHsp90 was ubiquitously expressed at lower levels in all detected tissues and up-regulated after heat shock at 34°C or cold stress at 4°C. To understand the function of CiHsp90 involving in thermal protection, an expression vector containing coding region cDNA was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) plysS. Upon transfer from 37°C to 42°C, these cells that accumulated CiHsp90 peptides displayed greater thermoresistance than the control cells. While incubated at 4°C for different periods, it could also improve the cell viability. After transient transfected recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1/CiHsp90 into mouse myeloma cell line SP2/0, we found that CiHsp90 could contribute to protecting cells against both thermal and cold extremes. On the contrary, the mutant construct ▵N-CiHsp90 (256–798aa) could abolish the protection activity both in prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells. Additionally, both CiHsp90 and ▵N-CiHsp90 peptides could reduce the level of citrate synthase aggregation at the high temperature. ► CiHsp90 was up-regulated after temperature stress in all detected tissues. ► CiHsp90 could contribute to protecting cells against both thermal and cold extremes. ► The full-length CiHsp90 was required for its protection activity. ► CiHsp90 reduce the level of citrate synthase aggregation at high temperature. ► ▵N-CiHsp90 reduce the level of citrate synthase aggregation at high temperature.