A heat shock protein gene in Giardia lamblia unrelated to HSP70

A 4.2 kb HindIII gene fragment from Giardia lamblia trophozoites strain WB, selected by super(32)P labeled HSP70 clone pPW229 of Drosophila was cloned into pUC19 (pUCG2c). The sequence was determined by sequencing both strands of overlapping restriction fragments. The sequence contains a 5' non-coding region of 141 bases followed by 1593 nucleotides showing a single continuous open reading frame starting with a putative initiator methionine at position 142. A 2.5 kb RNA transcript from G. lamblia trophozoites hybridized to pUCG2c clone and the level of the same significantly increased upon heat shock. Biological significance of this heat shock gene in Giardia is not known yet.