THE SIMULTANEOUS IMMUNOLOGICAL DETECTION OF 4 STRESS-70 PROTEIN ISOFORMS IN MYTILUS-EDULIS

Organisms exposed to adverse environmental conditions exhibit a stress -70 protein response which is highly conserved from bacteria to man. I mmunological analysis of the stress-70 response in mussels is of inter est for its potential use in marine biomonitoring. We have analysed th e gill tissues of Mytilus edulis individuals for changes in stress-70 complement after exposure to 48 h of temperature stress. Using a comme rcially available monoclonal antibody raised against human hsp70 and e pitope mapped to a conserved ATP binding region, the authors were able to detect by western analysis constitutively-expressed 72kDa and 78kD a isoforms in control animals acclimated at normal temperatures. After 48 h of heat stress, induction of a 70kDa protein was clearly seen al ong with an increase in the level of the 72kDa protein. Western analys is using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis indicated that the antibo dy recognised four stress-70 isoforms (70, 72, 72 and 78kDa). This sim ultaneous detection of four members of the stress-70 family will permi t studies on the differential regulation of each of the four members o f the multigene family in response to a variety of environmental stres sors.