Dynamic metabolic adjustments and genome plasticity are implicated in the heat shock response of the extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus.

Approximately one-third of the open reading frames encoded in the Sulfolobus solfataricus genome were differentially expressed within 5 min following an 80 to 90 degrees C temperature shift at pH 4.0. This included many toxin-antitoxin loci and insertion elements, implicating a connection between genome plasticity and metabolic regulation in the early stages of stress response.