Figure 1. Conceptual scheme for measuring and correlating mild stress induced biomarker and robustness responses.

a) Candidate-biomarkers - a transcriptional regulator (activating general stress responses), catalases (removing reactive oxygen species, ROS), and chaperones and proteases (maintenance of protein quality) - were quantitatively measured at transcript, protein and/or activity level upon exposure to four mild stress conditions (43°C, pH 5.5, 1.5% NaCl, 0.1 mM H₂O₂) for various time intervals. Mild stress treated cells were also exposed to three lethal stresses (50°C, pH 3.3, 0.2 mM H₂O₂) to quantify their robustness towards these lethal stresses following mild stress pretreatment. b) To evaluate whether the candidate-biomarker could predict the robustness level of mild stress pretreated cells, the mild stress induced biomarker and robustness responses were correlated to evaluate the significance of their correlation.