Adaptation is essential for maximizing cell survival and for cell fitness in response to sudden changes in the environment. Several aspects of cell physiology change during adaptation. Major changes in gene expression are associated with cell exposure to environmental changes, and several aspects of mRNA biogenesis appear to be targeted by signaling pathways upon stress. Exhaustive reviews have been written regarding adaptation to stress and regulation of gene expression. In this review, using osmostress in yeast as a prototypical case study, we highlight those aspects of regulation of gene induction that are general to various environmental stresses as well as mechanistic aspects that are potentially conserved from yeast to mammals.

The laboratory of F.P. and E.N. is supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2012-33503 and FEDER, BFU2014-52125-REDT and BFU2014-51672-REDC to F.P. and BFU2014-52333-P to E.N.), the Catalan Government (2014 SGR 599) and an ERC Advanced Grant (number 294294) from the EU seventh framework program (SYNCOM) to F.P. This project is supported by the Fundación Botín and by Banco Santander through its Santander Universities Global Division to F.P. F.P. and E.N. are recipients of an ICREA Acadèmia (Generalitat de Catalunya).