Heat-shock induction of ultraviolet light resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

When exponentially growing diploid wild type Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells were subjected to a sudden rise in temperature (heat shock) they responded by increasing their resistance to the lethal effects of ultraviolet light. We have previously reported heat shock-induced increases in heat and ionizing radiation resistance. The shock-induced rise in resistance to uv light reported here was examined in terms of DNA repair capacity, and we find that the increase is due to induction of the recombinational repair system with no significant response from the uv-excision repair process.