cold shock response

traitmech:000206 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A stress response in which a rapid temperature downshift induces nucleic-acid-binding cold-shock proteins and RNA-remodeling functions that preserve gene expression at low temperature.

Trait evidence (4)

DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707
bacteria express a well-defined set of proteins after a rapid decrease in temperature, which is termed cold shock

Weber and Marahiel define bacterial cold shock as the temperature-downshift response that induces a specific protein set.
DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707
the cold shock response is organized as a complex stimulon in which post-transcriptional events play an important role

The bacterial cold-shock response is reviewed as a stimulon dominated by post-transcriptional control rather than a single cold-specific sigma-factor branch.
DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707
nucleic acid-binding cold shock proteins which play a fundamental role not only during cold shock adaptation but also under optimal growth conditions

The review places nucleic-acid-binding cold-shock proteins among the core functional components of bacterial cold-shock adaptation.
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x
proposed function as an RNA chaperone to prevent the formation of secondary structures in RNA molecules, thus facilitating translation at low temperature

Phadtare and Inouye support RNA chaperoning by CspA-family proteins as a mechanism for preserving translation after cold shock.

Cold-shock RNA adaptation

Evidence-backed causal sketch linking abrupt temperature downshift to bacterial cold-shock protein induction and RNA chaperone support for low-temperature translation.

MECHANISTIC · This graph captures the conserved CspA-family RNA-support branch of the bacterial cold-shock response without making one cold-sensing regulator, one RNA helicase, or one post-transcriptional circuit universal across bacteria.

Edge evidence

acute cold shock causes cold-shock response biolink:causes
Abrupt temperature downshift causes the bacterial cold-shock protein-expression response.
- DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707 bacteria express a well-defined set of proteins after a rapid decrease in temperature, which is termed cold shock Verified against the public Crossref abstract; the cold-shock response follows rapid temperature decrease.
cold-shock response positively regulates CspA-family cold-shock proteins RO:0002213
The cold-shock response induces CspA-family nucleic-acid-binding cold-shock proteins.
- DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707 nucleic acid-binding cold shock proteins which play a fundamental role not only during cold shock adaptation Verified against the public Crossref abstract; nucleic-acid-binding cold-shock proteins are central cold-shock-adaptation components.
CspA-family cold-shock proteins contributes to RNA secondary-structure control at low temperature RO:0002326
CspA-family cold-shock proteins contribute to low-temperature RNA secondary-structure control.
- DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x RNA chaperone to prevent the formation of secondary structures in RNA molecules Verified against the public Crossref abstract; CspA-family RNA chaperone activity limits RNA secondary-structure formation.
RNA secondary-structure control at low temperature contributes to translation at low temperature RO:0002326
Control of RNA secondary structures supports translation at low temperature.
- DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x prevent the formation of secondary structures in RNA molecules, thus facilitating translation at low temperature Verified against the public Crossref abstract; CspA-family RNA chaperoning facilitates low-temperature translation.
translation at low temperature confers cold shock response METPO:2007700
Preservation of translation realizes the RNA-adaptation branch of the cold-shock-response trait.
- DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x proposed function as an RNA chaperone to prevent the formation of secondary structures in RNA molecules, thus facilitating translation at low temperature Verified against the public Crossref abstract; RNA chaperoning connects CspA-family proteins to preserved translation during cold stress.

Protein and taxon examples

Graph node Protein Taxon UniProt status Role and evidence

CspA-family cold-shock proteins

Graph node	Protein	Taxon	UniProt status	Role and evidence
CspA-family cold-shock proteins	`UniProtKB:P0A9X9` Cold shock protein CspA (cspA)	Escherichia coli K-12 `NCBITaxon:83333`	`REVIEWED` retrieved 2026-09-15 · entry v146 · sequence v2	E. coli K-12 CspA is the major CspA-family cold-shock protein and model RNA chaperone induced by temperature downshift. `DOI:10.1073/pnas.87.1.283` the production of a 7.4-kDa cytoplasmic protein (CS7.4) was prominently induced Goldstein et al. directly support strong induction of the E. coli major cold-shock protein later named CspA. `DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x` CspA, the major cold shock protein, binds RNA with low sequence specificity Phadtare and Inouye directly support CspA as an RNA-binding cold-shock protein.

UniProtKB:P0A9X9
Cold shock protein CspA (cspA)

Escherichia coli K-12
NCBITaxon:83333

REVIEWED
retrieved 2026-09-15 · entry v146 · sequence v2

E. coli K-12 CspA is the major CspA-family cold-shock protein and model RNA chaperone induced by temperature downshift.

DOI:10.1073/pnas.87.1.283 the production of a 7.4-kDa cytoplasmic protein (CS7.4) was prominently induced Goldstein et al. directly support strong induction of the E. coli major cold-shock protein later named CspA.
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01541.x CspA, the major cold shock protein, binds RNA with low sequence specificity Phadtare and Inouye directly support CspA as an RNA-binding cold-shock protein.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707

Parent traits (1)

stress response traitmech:000078

Synonyms (1)

cold-shock response EXACT_SYNONYM · DOI:10.3184/003685003783238707

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Canonical examples (1)

Organisms cited as exemplars of this trait. Taxon ids are NCBITaxon and link out to the NCBI record.

Escherichia coli NCBITaxon:562 DOI:10.1073/pnas.87.1.283 E. coli is a model for the bacterial cold-shock response, including induction of the major cold-shock protein CspA.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (1)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve exact ontology xrefs for organism-level microbial cold shock response before adding TraitRecord xrefs.

CURATION TODO OPEN cold-shock-response-xref-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-15

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

GO:0009409 response to cold can ground broad biological-process response nodes but is broader than the rapid temperature-downshift cold-shock response curated here. Cold-shock-domain signatures and CspA-family terms describe narrower molecular machinery rather than the whole organism-level stress-response trait.

Curation history

2026-09-15T05:32:00Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Minted cold shock response as a DOI-backed stress-response TraitRecord after a repository-wide duplicate review covering ignored and hidden files; the local METPO snapshot has only an obsolete cold shock response class and the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v83.