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Heat shock proteins are a part of the cell's internal repair mechanism. They are also called stress-proteins. They respond to heat, cold and oxygen deprivation by activating several cascade pathways.

In biochemistry, applying a heat shock means subjecting cells to a higher temperature than the ideal body temperature of the organism from which the cell line was derived. For instance, in fish that survive at 0^oC, heat shock can be induced with temperatures as low as 5^oC, whereas thermophilic bacteria that proliferate at 50^oC will not express heat shock proteins until temperatures reach approximately 60^oC [1]. The process of heat shocking can be done in a CO₂ incubator, O₂ incubator, or a hot water bath.

Also, Heat shock is a method in which genes can be introduced into a vector. This is done by mixing the vector(bacteria or virus) and the coded gene in an eppendorf tube.

First, the tube is cooled to a low temperature for several minutes, usually with an ice bath. The tube is then quickly moved into warm water, preferably around 40 degrees Celsius. This sudden change in temperature causes the pores to open up to larger sizes, allowing DNA sequences to enter. After a brief interval, the tube is quickly cooled to a low temperature again. This closes up the pores, and traps the DNA inside. With this, the cells would have been transformed. However, it must be noted that, as with almost all transformation techniques, this method is not 100% efficient.