User:TeleomerePeer

heat shock protein Hsp20 is a family of heat shock proteins. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms respond to heat shock or other environmental stress by inducing the synthesis of proteins collectively known as heat-shock proteins (hsp).[1] Amongst heat shock proteins there's a family with an average molecular weight of 20 kDa, known as the hsp20 proteins.[2] Heat-shock proteins act as protein chaperones that can protect other proteins against heat-induced denaturation and aggregation. Hsp20 proteins seem to form large heterooligomeric aggregates. Structurally, this family is characterised by the presence of a conserved C-terminal domain, alpha-crystallin domain, of about 100 residues. Recently, small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) were found in marine viruses (cyanophages).[3]