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DcHSP17.7, a small heat shock protein from carrot (Daucus carota L.), was expressed in Escherichia coli to examine its functional mechanism under heat stress. When transformed cells expressing DcHSP17.7 were exposed to 50 °C for 1 h, the number of viable cells was ≈4-fold higher than that of control. When the amount of soluble proteins was compared, it was more than twofold higher in transformed cells expressing DcHSP17.7 than that in control, suggesting that DcHSP17.7 may function as a molecular chaperone preventing heat-inducible protein degradation. Native-PAGE followed by immunoblot analysis showed that in transformed E. coli, DcHSP17.7 was present in an oligomeric complex, ≈300 kDa in molecular mass, on isopropyl b-D-thiogalactopyranoside treatment. However, the complex rapidly disappeared when bacterial cells were exposed to heat stress. In carrot, DcHSP17.7 was found in the similar-sized complex (≈300 kDa), but only during heat stress (40 °C), suggesting that the functional structure of DcHSP17.7 may be different in transformed E. coli from that in carrot.