<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>The regulation of heat shock protein (HSP) expression is critically important to pathogens such as <italic>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</italic> and dysregulation of the heat shock response results in increased immune recognition of the bacterium and reduced
survival during chronic infection. In this study we use a whole genome spotted
microarray to characterize the heat shock response of <italic>M. tuberculosis</italic>. We also begin a dissection of this important stress response by generating deletion mutants that lack
specific transcriptional regulators and examining their transcriptional profiles under
different stresses. Understanding the stimuli and mechanisms that govern heat shock
in mycobacteria will allow us to relate observed <italic>in vivo</italic> expression patterns of HSPs
to particular stresses and physiological conditions. The mechanisms controlling HSP
expression also make attractive drug targets as part of a strategy designed to enhance
immune recognition of the bacterium.</p>
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Comp Funct Genomics. 2002 Aug; 3(4):348-351