The heat shock response is a ubiquitous process described in prokaryotic as well as eukaryotic cells (Feige U., Mollenhauer J. 1992: Experientia 48: 621-622). This response is characterized by an induction, due to transcriptional activation, of a specific set of genes (Sorger P.K., Pelham H.R.B. 1987: EMBO J. 6: 993-998); the final products of this activation are the so called heat shock protei...