Introduction: Climate change is driving shifts in weather patterns, leading to an increased frequency of sudden heat wave events that pose major risks to staple food crops. Understanding the mechanisms plants use in thermal stress mitigation becomes crucial for agricultural sustainability. Plants physiologically adapt to novel stressors primarily through a large family of heat shock proteins (HSPs), which are classified by their approximate molecular weight into Hsp100, Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp60, and small heat shock proteins (sHSPs, <60 kDa). Small heat shock proteins typically exist as multimeric complexes within plant cells, remaining inactive until external stress triggers their ATP-independent dissociation. Upon activation, the residues of sHSPs bind to exposed hydrophobic regions on misfolded proteins, preventing protein aggregation, while larger chaperones facilitate refolding or degradation. Small heat shock proteins were selected for this study due to their consistent expression in maturing seeds and their protective function during heat stress and desiccation events. This study investigates the transgenic overexpression of the 16.9 kDa sHSP from the highly heat-tolerant staple grain Sorghum bicolor (SsHSP) in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. The objective of this study is to understand the impact of SsHSP overexpression on thermotolerance, providing insight into cross-species enhancement of heat stress resilience in plants.