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Delayed discovery of Hsp60 and subsequent characterization of moonlighting functions of multiple Hsp60 genes in Drosophila: a personal historical perspective

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Abstract

The pioneering studies carried out on heat shock-induced synthesis of specific proteins in the early 1970s did not identify any Hsp60 family protein in Drosophila. By the early 1980s, although the members of Hsp60 family of heat shock proteins (Hsp) were identified in a wide range of eukaryotes as homologs of the bacterial GroEL, none was known in Drosophila. The existence of the Hsp60 family protein was serendipitously revealed in Drosophila in my laboratory in 1989. Contrary to the earlier reports that all tissues in flies display the canonical heat shock response, the larval Malpighian tubules (MT) did not show induction of any of the major Hsps but synthesis of a putative Hsp60 family protein was found to be the most abundant in this tissue. A few years later, we identified this MT-specific heat shock-induced protein to indeed be a member of the Hsp60/chaperonin family. The Drosophila genome sequence projects subsequently revealed four putative Hsp60 gene sequences in the D. melanogaster genome. The present historical perspective chronicles contributions from my and other laboratories that unraveled several aspects of intriguing biology of the multiple Hsp60 genes in D. melanogaster, and highlights challenging questions awaiting future studies.

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the earlier support from the Department of Biotechnology (Govt. of India) which permitted initiation of studies on Hsp60 in Drosophila. I also acknowledge the Distinguished Fellowship provided by the Science & Engineering Research Board (Govt. of India) and contributions of my Ph.D. students whose works have provided the primary basis for this historical perspective. Images in figures 2 and 3 have been adapted from the Ph.D. thesis of Dr Priya Srivastava which was submitted to the Banaras Hindu University under my supervision. Since her present address is not known, it was not possible to contact her for inclusion of the unpublished images from her doctoral thesis in this article.

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  1. Cytogenetics Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, India

    Subhash C. Lakhotia

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Correspondence to Subhash C. Lakhotia.

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Corresponding editor: Durgadas P. Kasbekar

I dedicate this article in memory of late Dr Ajit K. Singh, my former Ph.D. student and post-doctoral associate who significantly contributed in the late 1980s to the discovery of Hsp60 in Drosophila.

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Lakhotia, S.C. Delayed discovery of Hsp60 and subsequent characterization of moonlighting functions of multiple Hsp60 genes in Drosophila: a personal historical perspective. J Genet 101, 47 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-022-01389-4

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