Priming (also referred to as acclimation, acquired stress resistance, adaptive response, or cross-protection) is defined as an exposure of an organism to mild stress that leads to the development of a subsequent stronger and more protective response. This memory of a previously encountered stress likely provides a strong survival advantage in a rapidly shifting environment. Priming has been identified in animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria.
Organism | Species | Priming Stress | Exposure Results | Mechanism | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mice |
Species | Priming Stress | Exposure Result | Mechanism | References | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mus musculus | Infection with sub-lethal concentrations of the pathogenic mold | A. fumigatus | 80% survival of primed mice, rapid and severe disease onset which cleared after 3 d | ||||||||||||||||||
Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Heat stress (37 °C, 1 h) or osmotic stress (0.7 M, 1 h) | Better tolerance to severe heat shock (47 °C) | Induction of GPDH in osmotic stressed cells, but not in heat-shock stressed cells. Mechanism unknown. | Rapid phagocytosis by neutrophiles, elevated levels of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 | [33] | ||||||||||||||||
[ | 40 | ] | Mice | Mus musculus | Vaccinate mice with liposomal L-mannose protein | Higher survival rate of vaccinated mice after re-infection with | C. albicans | Elevated production of polyclonal antibodies | [34] | ||||||||||||
Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Exposure to sub-lethal temperatures | Increased thermotolerance | Mechanism involves the ATPase proton pump | [ | Roundworms | Caenorhabditis elegans | Exposure to different stressors: heavy metals, NaCl, fasting. | Increased resistance to fatal oxidative stress which last up to F3 | Induction of the transcription factor SKN1 for the oxidative stress response | [13] | |||||||||||
38 | ] | ||||||||||||||||||||
Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Oxidative stress (H | 2 | O | 2 | ), sub-lethal ethanol stress, cold stress | Barotolerence or high hydrostatic pressure tolerance (HHP) | Upregulation of genes involved in oxidative stress defense response, cell membrane changes | [45] | Insects | Galleria mellonela | Inoculation with sub lethal doses of the pathogen | C.albicans | Protection against lethal doses of re-infection with same pathogen | Upregulation of antifungal genes (e.g., gallerimycin) | [35] | ||||||
Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Exposure to several mild stressors (acute heat, NaCl, oxidative stress, ethanol) | Resistance to same stressor * (e.g., | p | .heat- | s | .heat), resistance to some subsequent stressors ( | p | .NaCl- | s | .NaCl and H | 2 | O | 2 | ) | Insects | Drosophila Melanogaster | Inoculation with sublethal doses of the Pathogen | S. pneumoniae | Protection against lethal doses of re-infection with same pathogen | Higher and efficient phagocytosis | [36] |
Induction of transcription factors Msn2p and/or Msn4p | [ | 43 | ] | Plants | Arabidopsis thaliana | Exposure to secreted volatiles from a damaged neighboring plant infected with | M | . | separata | larva | Protection against future herbivores | Increased Trypsin inhibitors (TI-plant defense genes) by demethylation of the TI promoter | [23] | ||||||||
Plants | Arabidopsis thaliana | Mild osmotic stress (50 mM NaCl) |
Higher tolerance to drought stress and extreme osmotic stress (80 mM NaCl) | ||||||||||||||||||
Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Salt (NaCl) stress | Tolerance to severe oxidative stress (H | 2 | O | 2 | ) | A role for the nuclear pore component Nup42p | [39] | |||||||||||||
Candida albicans | Mild heat, osmotic or oxidative stress | Heat stressed cells exhibited tolerance to a strong oxidative stress | Slightly increased in HSPs levels (heat shock protein) | [46] | Histone modification, and increased NaCl transporter (HKT1) induction after second exposure to salt stress | [20] | |||||||||||||||
Candida albicans | Different concentrations of glucose, low, mild and high | Increased resistance to the antifungal miconazole, increased resistance to osmotic stress and oxidative stress | Upregulation of genes involved in drug resistance, induction of osmotic stress related genes, | [47] | Plants | Arrhenatherum elatius | Dehydration periods of 16 days |
Improved photo-protection and higher biomass in second exposure to severe drought | Not known | [21] | |||||||||||
Plants | Triticum aestivum | (winter wheat) | Moderate drought during the vegetative growth period of the plant | Better tolerance to post-anthesis severe drought | Regulating of hormonal levels (e.g., cytokinnines) | [18] | |||||||||||||||
Plants | Soybean seeds |
Low to mild concentrations of melatonin | Increased salt tolerance, increased drought tolerance | Upregulation of several genes involved in photosynthesis and sugar metabolism | [24] | ||||||||||||||||
Bacteria | Bacillus subtilis | Mild heat shock stress (48 °C for 15 min) | Increased tolerance against lethal heat shock stress (53 °C) | Less protein aggregation | [26] | ||||||||||||||||
Bacteria | Escherichia coli | Subinhibitory concentrations of the antibiotic Ampicillin | Increased resistance to lethal levels of ampicillin, increased resistance to lethal oxidative stress and heat shock stress. | Upregulation of genes involved in higher energy metabolism and more ribosomal production | [31] | ||||||||||||||||
Bacteria | Escherichia coli | Sublethal doses of AMPs (pexiganan and melittin) | Increased resistance to lethal doses of AMPs (pexiganan and melittin) | Higher amount of colanic-acid capsule in pexiganan-primed cells. Elevated levels of curli fimbriae in melittin-primed cells | [32] | ||||||||||||||||
Bacteria | Listeria monocytogenes | Exposure to NaCl stress | Increased resistance to the antimicrobial food preservation molecule Nisin | Increased transcript levels of | LiaR | -regulated genes | [29] |
Metarhizium anisopliae | ||||||||||
Sub-lethal concentrations of heat stress, oxidative stress, osmotic stress and nutritive stress | ||||||||||
Increased resistance of | ||||||||||
p | ||||||||||
.nutritive and | ||||||||||
p | ||||||||||
.oxidative - | s | .UV-B and | s | .heat. Increased resistance of | p | .heat– | s | .UV-B and heat | Partially established, increased levels of sugars (trehalose and mannitol) | [48] |
Agaricus bisporus | Application of exogenous riboflavin/vitamin B2 | Increased drought resistance | Not established, but changes in transcripts levels was observed | [49] | ||||||
Penicillium chrysogenum | Mild drought stress | Increased resistance to severe drought | Higher β-glucosidase and respiratory activity | [50] | ||||||
Rhizopus arrhyzus | Exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of voriconazole or isavuconazole | In vivo hypervirulence observed by lower survival rate of fruit flies ( | D. melanogaster | ) | Unknown | [51] | ||||
Rhizopus arrhyzus | Tornadic shear stress | Hypervirulence in | D. melanogaster | in vivo model | Secreted metabolites and calcineurin-signaling pathway (not fully characterized) | [52] | ||||
Aspergillus fumigatus | Mild heat stress (37 or 45 °C) | Increased resistance to both oxidative stress and severe heat stress (60 °C) | Increased sugar content (trehalose) | [53] | ||||||
Aspergillus fumigatus | Different environmental stressors: minimal medium, 50 °C, NaCl, +Fe and -Zn | Increased pathogenicity in | D. melanogaster | in vivo model | Not established | [54] | ||||
Aspergillus fumigatus | Osmotic stress (0.5M NaCl or KCl) Zinc-starved stress, cold (4 °C) or heat (42 °C induced stress | Increased tolerance to oxidative stress, or zinc-stress | Multiple changes in genes transcript levels: | ZapA | (osmotic stress), | Hsp70 | and | ZapA | (heat and zinc-starves stress), ergosterol pathway (osmotic stress), gliotoxin secretion (Zinc-starved stress) | [55] |