Heat shock proteins as biomarkers of climate change in the alpine ecosystem/ Heat shock proteins come biomarcatori del cambiamento climatico negli ecosistemi alpini

Over the past few decades, climate change has rapidly accelerated, negatively affecting ecosystems, especially sensitive areas like alpine regions. These regions are a crucial source of water, minerals, forests, and host a strong biodiversity. To face the impacts of environmental changes, identifying early signs is essential. Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) could be the key indicator we need: they are proteins that cells produce in response to stress, such as heat. The increase in HSP expression is the initial response to a biological process triggered by stress, which could lead to a larger change. Therefore, monitoring the expression of HSP genes as an early indicator of stress can enable the use of these proteins as biomarkers for environmental challenges. Our preliminary analysis focused on a specific sHSP (HSP26) in plants from alpine ecosystem, with particular attention to Norway spruce (Picea abies). We identified a previously uncharacterized HSP26 gene that was not annotated in the currently available genomic resources for this species. This finding is particularly noteworthy given the complexity of conifer genomes, which are characterized by large size and highly repetitive sequences, often resulting in fragmented and poorly resolved annotations. Our data also demonstrated that under intense thermal stress, HSP26 is actively involved in the heat shock response. HSP26 expression levels closely mirrored the degree of thermal stress experienced by conifers across sites located at different altitudes, supporting its potential utility as a molecular biomarker that can precisely sense heat-induced stress in alpine conifers