Heat shock factor protein 1 (HSF1)

Function as a stress-inducible and DNA-binding transcription factor that plays a central role in the transcriptional activation of the heat shock response (HSR), leading to the manifestation of a large class of molecular chaperones heat shock proteins (HSPs) that protect cells from mobile insults' damage (PubMed:1871105, PubMed:11447121, PubMed:1986252, PubMed:7760831, PubMed:7623826, PubMed:8946918, PubMed:8940068, PubMed:9341107, PubMed:9121459, PubMed:9727490, PubMed:9499401, PubMed:9535852, PubMed:12659875, PubMed:12917326, PubMed:15016915, PubMed:25963659, PubMed:26754925). In unstressed cells, is present at a HSP90-containing multichaperone complex that maintains it at a non-DNA-binding inactivated monomeric form (PubMed:9727490, PubMed:11583998, PubMed:16278218).

Upon exposure to heat and other stress stimuli, undergoes homotrimerization and activates HSP gene transcription through binding to site-specific heat shock elements (HSEs) present in the promoter regions of HSP genes (PubMed:1871105, PubMed:1986252, PubMed:8455624, PubMed:7935471, PubMed:7623826, PubMed:8940068, PubMed:9727490, PubMed:9499401, PubMed:10359787, PubMed:11583998, PubMed:12659875, PubMed:16278218, PubMed:25963659, PubMed:26754925). Activation is reversible, and throughout the attenuation and recovery period period of the HSR, returns to its unactivated form (PubMed:11583998, PubMed:16278218).