... cope with sudden changes in the environment. Here, we sought to modify the maternal mRNA contribution to offspring embryos and test for maternal effects on acute thermal tolerance in early embryos of Drosophila melanogaster . We drove in vivo overexpression of a small heat shock protein gene ( Hsp23...

... in so-called ramping assays. We exposed flies to ramping at rates of 0.06 and 0.1°C min -1 , respectively. Flies were sampled from the two treatments at 28, 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38°C and tested for heat tolerance and expression levels of the heat shock genes hsp23 and hsp70 , as well as Hsp70 protein...

... phase are only beginning to be understood in insects. Hsp22 and Hsp23 are both upregulated during the recovery from prolonged chill coma in Drosophila melanogaster . This prompted us to investigate the functional significance of these modulations by testing whether expression of these two small Hsps...