Heat Shock Proteins in Stress in Teleosts

Heat shock proteins (HSP) play important role in maintenance of cellular homeostasis. These proteins constitute around 5–10% total proteins of all normal cells and mediate the correct assembly of proteins and intracellular localization. In unstressed cells, HSP play various constitutive functions; however, when cells face stressed condition, multifold increase in the synthesis of HSP is observed. Fish is an important animal in aquatic ecosystem and the health of fish reflects the health status of its environment. Moreover, fish is a health food and fisheries and aquaculture is one of the the fastest growing food production sectors. Fishes are poikilothermic animals and confront a wide range of biotic and abiotic stressors, and like other animals and plants, in fish also HSP play important role in combating and/or withstanding the stress. So the HSP have potential applications in monitoring and management of stress in fish. The present chapter discusses the different types of HSP that have been reported in fish and their potential applications in monitoring and management of fish health under biotic and abiotic stress; further, the knowledge from the lower vertebrates could be useful in health and disease management in higher vertebrates including humans.