scholarly journals Blocking rapid ice crystal growth through nonbasal plane adsorption of antifreeze proteins

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (14) ◽  
pp. 3740-3745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luuk L. C. Olijve ◽  
Konrad Meister ◽  
Arthur L. DeVries ◽  
John G. Duman ◽  
Shuaiqi Guo ◽  
...  

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are a unique class of proteins that bind to growing ice crystal surfaces and arrest further ice growth. AFPs have gained a large interest for their use in antifreeze formulations for water-based materials, such as foods, waterborne paints, and organ transplants. Instead of commonly used colligative antifreezes such as salts and alcohols, the advantage of using AFPs as an additive is that they do not alter the physicochemical properties of the water-based material. Here, we report the first comprehensive evaluation of thermal hysteresis (TH) and ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI) activity of all major classes of AFPs using cryoscopy, sonocrystallization, and recrystallization assays. The results show that TH activities determined by cryoscopy and sonocrystallization differ markedly, and that TH and IRI activities are not correlated. The absence of a distinct correlation in antifreeze activity points to a mechanistic difference in ice growth inhibition by the different classes of AFPs: blocking fast ice growth requires rapid nonbasal plane adsorption, whereas basal plane adsorption is only relevant at long annealing times and at small undercooling. These findings clearly demonstrate that biomimetic analogs of antifreeze (glyco)proteins should be tailored to the specific requirements of the targeted application.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinzi Deng ◽  
Elana Apfelbaum ◽  
Ran Drori

<p>Since some antifreeze proteins and glycoproteins (AF(G)Ps) cannot directly bind to all crystal planes, they change ice crystal morphology by minimizing the area of the crystal planes to which they cannot bind until crystal growth is halted. Previous studies found that growth along the <i>c</i>-axis (perpendicular to the basal plane, the crystal plane to which these AF(G)Ps cannot bind) is accelerated by some AF(G)Ps, while growth of other planes is inhibited. The effects of this growth acceleration on crystal morphology and on the thermal hysteresis activity are unknown to date. Understanding these effects will elucidate the mechanism of ice growth inhibition by AF(G)Ps. Using cold stages and an Infrared laser, ice growth velocities and crystal morphologies in AF(G)P solutions were measured. Three types of effects on growth velocity were found: concentration-dependent acceleration, concentration-independent acceleration, and concentration-dependent deceleration. Quantitative crystal morphology measurements in AF(G)P solutions demonstrated that adsorption rate of the proteins to ice plays a major role in determining the morphology of the bipyramidal crystal. These results demonstrate that faster adsorption rates generate bipyramidal crystals with diminished basal surfaces at higher temperatures compared to slower adsorption rates. The acceleration of growth along the <i>c</i>-axis generates crystals with smaller basal surfaces at higher temperatures leading to increased growth inhibition of the entire crystal.<a></a></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinzi Deng ◽  
Elana Apfelbaum ◽  
Ran Drori

<p>Since some antifreeze proteins and glycoproteins (AF(G)Ps) cannot directly bind to all crystal planes, they change ice crystal morphology by minimizing the area of the crystal planes to which they cannot bind until crystal growth is halted. Previous studies found that growth along the <i>c</i>-axis (perpendicular to the basal plane, the crystal plane to which these AF(G)Ps cannot bind) is accelerated by some AF(G)Ps, while growth of other planes is inhibited. The effects of this growth acceleration on crystal morphology and on the thermal hysteresis activity are unknown to date. Understanding these effects will elucidate the mechanism of ice growth inhibition by AF(G)Ps. Using cold stages and an Infrared laser, ice growth velocities and crystal morphologies in AF(G)P solutions were measured. Three types of effects on growth velocity were found: concentration-dependent acceleration, concentration-independent acceleration, and concentration-dependent deceleration. Quantitative crystal morphology measurements in AF(G)P solutions demonstrated that adsorption rate of the proteins to ice plays a major role in determining the morphology of the bipyramidal crystal. These results demonstrate that faster adsorption rates generate bipyramidal crystals with diminished basal surfaces at higher temperatures compared to slower adsorption rates. The acceleration of growth along the <i>c</i>-axis generates crystals with smaller basal surfaces at higher temperatures leading to increased growth inhibition of the entire crystal.<a></a></p>


Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romà Surís-Valls ◽  
Ilja Voets

Antifreeze (glyco)proteins (AF(G)Ps) have received increasing attention as potential cryopreservation agents since their discovery in the 1970s. While cryopreservation strategies for specific cells (such as red blood cells) are successful and widely implemented, preservation of other cell types, tissues and whole organs remains challenging. This is due to the multifactorial nature of the freeze-thaw damage, the complexity of preserving biological matter and the (country-to-country) variability of the employed procedures and regulations. AF(G)Ps are well-known for their ability to modulate ice crystal growth morphology and ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI), both of which are considered key contributors to freeze-thaw damage. To date, however, the impact of AF(G)Ps on cell survival remains at best partially understood as conflicting results on the benefits or disadvantages of including AF(G)P in cryopreservation strategies remain unelucidated. We hypothesize that variability in the additives in the cryopreservation media contributes to the observed discrepancies. To critically examine this idea, we monitored the inhibition of ice recrystallization by AF(G)P in the presence of various salts using a quantitative analysis of optical microscopy images via the Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theory for Oswald ripening. We found that the addition of salts, which are used in culture and cryopreservation media, enhances the IRI activity of AF(G)Ps, and that the magnitude of the enhancement was in line with the Hofmeister series. The size of ice crystals grown in AFGP1–5 and type III AFP samples containing chloride, phosphate and citrate ions were statistically smaller after 90 min of incubation than crystals grown in the absence of these salts. The ice recrystallization rates (kd) of AFGP1–5 and type III AFP samples prepared at a fixed overall ionic strength of 100 mM progressively decreased following the Hofmeister series for anions. Our results demonstrate that the performance of AF(G)Ps is significantly influenced by additives present in common cryopreservation media. It is thus important to conduct excipient compatibility experiments to identify potential incompatibilities between additives and AF(G)Ps in cryopreservation formulations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (44) ◽  
pp. 23555-23562
Author(s):  
Xing Liu ◽  
Hongya Geng ◽  
Nan Sheng ◽  
Jianjun Wang ◽  
Guosheng Shi

Design of biomimetic two-dimensional graphene derivatives to suppress ice crystal growth.


2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Wathen ◽  
M J Kuiper ◽  
V K Walker ◽  
Z Jia

A Monte Carlo computational method for simulating the growth of entire ice crystals from the liquid phase has been developed specifically to study the inhibition of ice-crystal growth by antifreeze proteins (AFPs). AFPs are found in the fluids of certain organisms that inhabit freezing environments and constrain ice-crystal growth by adsorbtion to the ice surface, but their inhibition mechanism is still poorly understood. Thus, it was of interest to incorporate these molecules into the dynamic ice simulations to examine the inhibition phenomenon on a whole-crystal basis. We have undertaken simulations with AFPs from two different organisms that differ in activity; the insect AFP has up to 100 times the activity of the fish AFP on a molar basis. Simulations involving insect and fish AFPs have achieved ice-growth inhibition at simulation temperatures within reported activity ranges for both fish and insect AFPs, accompanied by resulting ice morphologies similar to those observed experimentally. These results, as well as other studies on ice-etching patterns and ice burst growth at temperatures below known AFP ice-growth inhibition abilities suggest that AFP activity is dominated by the AFP ice-binding position rather than AFP ice-binding strength. PACS No.: 07.05T


Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneta Białkowska ◽  
Edyta Majewska ◽  
Aleksandra Olczak ◽  
Aleksandra Twarda-Clapa

More than 80% of Earth’s surface is exposed periodically or continuously to temperatures below 5 °C. Organisms that can live in these areas are called psychrophilic or psychrotolerant. They have evolved many adaptations that allow them to survive low temperatures. One of the most interesting modifications is production of specific substances that prevent living organisms from freezing. Psychrophiles can synthesize special peptides and proteins that modulate the growth of ice crystals and are generally called ice binding proteins (IBPs). Among them, antifreeze proteins (AFPs) inhibit the formation of large ice grains inside the cells that may damage cellular organelles or cause cell death. AFPs, with their unique properties of thermal hysteresis (TH) and ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI), have become one of the promising tools in industrial applications like cryobiology, food storage, and others. Attention of the industry was also caught by another group of IBPs exhibiting a different activity—ice-nucleating proteins (INPs). This review summarizes the current state of art and possible utilizations of the large group of IBPs.


Author(s):  
Panagiotis G. Georgiou ◽  
Huba L. Marton ◽  
Alexander N. Baker ◽  
Thomas R. Congdon ◽  
Thomas F. Whale ◽  
...  

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