scholarly journals Ice nucleation by fungal spores from the classes <i>Agaricomycetes</i>, <i>Ustilaginomycetes</i>, and <i>Eurotiomycetes</i>, and the effect on the atmospheric transport of these spores

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 8611-8630 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. I. Haga ◽  
S. M. Burrows ◽  
R. Iannone ◽  
M. J. Wheeler ◽  
R. H. Mason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transport Model ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Mushroom Species ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. We studied the ice nucleation properties of 12 different species of fungal spores chosen from three classes: Agaricomycetes, Ustilaginomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes. Agaricomycetes include many types of mushroom species and are widely distributed over the globe. Ustilaginomycetes are agricultural pathogens and have caused widespread damage to crops. Eurotiomycetes are found on all types of decaying material and include important human allergens. We focused on these classes because they are thought to be abundant in the atmosphere and because there is very little information on the ice nucleation ability of these classes of spores in the literature. All of the fungal spores investigated contained some fraction of spores that serve as ice nuclei at temperatures warmer than homogeneous freezing. The cumulative number of ice nuclei per spore was 0.001 at temperatures between −19 °C and −29 °C, 0.01 between −25.5 °C and −31 °C, and 0.1 between −26 °C and −31.5 °C. On average, the order of ice nucleating ability for these spores is Ustilaginomycetes > Agaricomycetes ≃ Eurotiomycetes. The freezing data also suggests that, at temperatures ranging from −20 °C to −25 °C, all of the fungal spores studied here are less efficient ice nuclei compared to Asian mineral dust on a per surface area basis. We used our new freezing results together with data in the literature to compare the freezing temperatures of spores from the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, which together make up 98% of known fungal species found on Earth. The data show that within both phyla (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota), there is a wide range of freezing properties, and also that the variation within a phylum is greater than the variation between the average freezing properties of the phyla. Using a global chemistry–climate transport model, we investigated whether ice nucleation on the studied spores, followed by precipitation, can influence the transport and global distributions of these spores in the atmosphere. Simulations suggest that inclusion of ice nucleation scavenging of these fungal spores in mixed-phase clouds can decrease the annual mean concentrations of fungal spores in near-surface air over the oceans and polar regions, and decrease annual mean concentrations in the upper troposphere.

scholarly journals Ice nucleation and its effect on the atmospheric transport of fungal spores from the classes <i>Agaricomycetes</i>, <i>Ustilaginomycetes</i>, and <i>Eurotiomycetes</i>

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 5013-5059 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. I. Haga ◽  
S. M. Burrows ◽  
R. Iannone ◽  
M. J. Wheeler ◽  
R. Mason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transport Model ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. Ice nucleation on fungal spores may affect the frequency and properties of ice and mixed-phase clouds. We studied the ice nucleation properties of 12 different species of fungal spores chosen from three classes: Agaricomycetes, Ustilaginomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes. Agaricomycetes include many types of mushroom species and are cosmopolitan. Ustilaginomycetes are agricultural pathogens and have caused widespread damage to crops. Eurotiomycetes are found on all types of decaying material and include important human allergens. We focused on these classes since they are thought to be abundant in the atmosphere and because there is very little information on the ice nucleation ability of these classes of spores in the literature. All of the fungal spores investigated were found to cause freezing of water droplets at temperatures warmer than homogeneous freezing. The cumulative number of ice nuclei per spore was 0.001 at temperatures between −19 °C and −29 °C, 0.01 between −25.5 °C and −31 °C, and 0.1 between −26 °C and −36 °C. On average, the order of ice nucleating ability for these spores is Ustilaginomycetes > Agaricomycetes &amp;simeq; Eurotiomycetes. We show that at temperatures below −20 °C, all of the fungal spores studied here are less efficient ice nuclei compared to Asian mineral dust on a per surface area basis. We used our new freezing results together with data in the literature to compare the freezing temperatures of spores from the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, which together make up 98% of known fungal species found on Earth. The data show that within both phyla (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) there is a wide range of freezing properties, and also that the variation within a phylum is greater than the variation between the average freezing properties of the phyla. Using a global chemistry–climate transport model, we investigated whether ice nucleation on the studied spores, followed by precipitation, can influence the atmospheric transport and global distributions of these spores in the atmosphere. Simulations show that inclusion of ice nucleation scavenging of these fungal spores in mixed-phase clouds can decrease the annual mean concentrations of fungal spores in near-surface air over the oceans and polar regions and decrease annual mean mixing ratios in the upper troposphere.

scholarly journals Twin-plate Ice Nucleation Assay (TINA) with infrared detection for high-throughput droplet freezing experiments with biological ice nuclei in laboratory and field samples

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 6327-6337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna T. Kunert ◽  
Mark Lamneck ◽  
Frank Helleis ◽  
Ulrich Pöschl ◽  
Mira L. Pöhlker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pseudomonas Syringae ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Infrared Detector ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Field Samples

Abstract. For efficient analysis and characterization of biological ice nuclei under immersion freezing conditions, we developed the Twin-plate Ice Nucleation Assay (TINA) for high-throughput droplet freezing experiments, in which the temperature profile and freezing of each droplet is tracked by an infrared detector. In the fully automated setup, a couple of independently cooled aluminum blocks carrying two 96-well plates and two 384-well plates, respectively, are available to study ice nucleation and freezing events simultaneously in hundreds of microliter-range droplets (0.1–40 µL). A cooling system with two refrigerant circulation loops is used for high-precision temperature control (uncertainty <0.2 K), enabling measurements over a wide range of temperatures (∼ 272–233 K) at variable cooling rates (up to 10 K min−1). The TINA instrument was tested and characterized in experiments with bacterial and fungal ice nuclei (IN) from Pseudomonas syringae (Snomax®) and Mortierella alpina, exhibiting freezing curves in good agreement with literature data. Moreover, TINA was applied to investigate the influence of chemical processing on the activity of biological IN, in particular the effects of oxidation and nitration reactions. Upon exposure of Snomax® to O3 and NO2, the cumulative number of IN active at 270–266 K decreased by more than 1 order of magnitude. Furthermore, TINA was used to study aqueous extracts of atmospheric aerosols, simultaneously investigating a multitude of samples that were pre-treated in different ways to distinguish different kinds of IN. For example, heat treatment and filtration indicated that most biological IN were larger than 5 µm. The results confirm that TINA is suitable for high-throughput experiments and efficient analysis of biological IN in laboratory and field samples.

scholarly journals Ice nucleation by fertile soil dusts: relative importance of mineral and biogenic components

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1853-1867 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. O'Sullivan ◽  
B. J. Murray ◽  
T. L. Malkin ◽  
T. F. Whale ◽  
N. S. Umo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Soil Dust ◽  
Source Regions ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mineral Components ◽  
Droplet Sizes ◽  
Biogenic Components

Abstract. Agricultural dust emissions have been estimated to contribute around 20% to the global dust burden. In contrast to dusts from arid source regions, the ice-nucleating abilities of which have been relatively well studied, soil dusts from fertile sources often contain a substantial fraction of organic matter. Using an experimental methodology which is sensitive to a wide range of ice nucleation efficiencies, we have characterised the immersion mode ice-nucleating activities of dusts (d < 11 μm) extracted from fertile soils collected at four locations around England. By controlling droplet sizes, which ranged in volume from 10−12 to 10−6 L (concentration = 0.02 to 0.1 wt% dust), we have been able to determine the ice nucleation behaviour of soil dust particles at temperatures ranging from 267 K (−6 °C) down to the homogeneous limit of freezing at about 237 K (−36 °C). At temperatures above 258 K (−15 °C) we find that the ice-nucleating activity of soil dusts is diminished by heat treatment or digestion with hydrogen peroxide, suggesting that a major fraction of the ice nuclei stems from biogenic components in the soil. However, below 258 K, we find that the ice active site densities tend towards those expected from the mineral components in the soils, suggesting that the inorganic fraction of soil dusts, in particular the K-feldspar fraction, becomes increasingly important in the initiation of the ice phase at lower temperatures. We conclude that dusts from agricultural activities could contribute significantly to atmospheric IN concentrations, if such dusts exhibit similar activities to those observed in the current laboratory study.

scholarly journals Detecting changes in Arctic methane emissions: limitations of the inter-polar difference of atmospheric mole fractions

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 17895-17907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar B. Dimdore-Miles ◽  
Paul I. Palmer ◽  
Lori P. Bruhwiler
Keyword(s):  
Mole Fraction ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
Continuous Version ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. We consider the utility of the annual inter-polar difference (IPD) as a metric for changes in Arctic emissions of methane (CH4). The IPD has been previously defined as the difference between weighted annual means of CH4 mole fraction data collected at stations from the two polar regions (defined as latitudes poleward of 53∘ N and 53∘ S, respectively). This subtraction approach (IPD) implicitly assumes that extra-polar CH4 emissions arrive within the same calendar year at both poles. We show using a continuous version of the IPD that the metric includes not only changes in Arctic emissions but also terms that represent atmospheric transport of air masses from lower latitudes to the polar regions. We show the importance of these atmospheric transport terms in understanding the IPD using idealized numerical experiments with the TM5 global 3-D atmospheric chemistry transport model that is run from 1980 to 2010. A northern mid-latitude pulse in January 1990, which increases prior emission distributions, arrives at the Arctic with a higher mole fraction and ≃12 months earlier than at the Antarctic. The perturbation at the poles subsequently decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃4 years. A similarly timed pulse emitted from the tropics arrives with a higher value at the Antarctic ≃11 months earlier than at the Arctic. This perturbation decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃7 years. These simulations demonstrate that the assumption of symmetric transport of extra-polar emissions to the poles is not realistic, resulting in considerable IPD variations due to variations in emissions and atmospheric transport. We assess how well the annual IPD can detect a constant annual growth rate of Arctic emissions for three scenarios, 0.5 %, 1 %, and 2 %, superimposed on signals from lower latitudes, including random noise. We find that it can take up to 16 years to detect the smallest prescribed trend in Arctic emissions at the 95 % confidence level. Scenarios with higher, but likely unrealistic, growth in Arctic emissions are detected in less than a decade. We argue that a more reliable measurement-driven approach would require data collected from all latitudes, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a global monitoring network to observe decadal changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

scholarly journals Empirical formulation for multiple groups of primary biological ice nucleating particles from field observations over Amazonia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachin Patade ◽  
Vaughan T. J. Phillips ◽  
Pierre Amato ◽  
Heinz G. Bingemer ◽  
Susannah M. Burrows ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Viral Particles ◽  
Multiple Groups ◽  
Ice Nucleation Activity ◽  
Bacterial Groups ◽  
Biological Component

AbstractTo resolve the various types of biological ice nuclei (IN) with atmospheric models, an extension of the empirical parameterization (EP) (Phillips et al. 2008; 2013) is proposed to predict the active IN from multiple groups of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs). Our approach is to utilize coincident observations of PBAP sizes, concentrations, biological composition, and ice-nucleating ability. The parameterization organizes the PBAPs into five basic groups: fungal spores, bacteria, pollen, viral particles, plant/animal detritus, algae, and their respective fragments. This new biological component of the EP was constructed by fitting predicted concentrations of PBAP IN to those observed at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) site located in the central Amazon. The fitting parameters for pollen and viral particles, plant/animal detritus, which are much less active as IN than fungal and bacterial groups, are constrained based on their ice nucleation activity from the literature. The parameterization has empirically derived dependencies on the surface area of each group (except algae), and the effects of variability in their mean sizes and number concentrations are represented via their influences on the surface area. The concentration of active algal IN is estimated from literature-based measurements.Predictions of this new biological component of the EP are consistent with previous laboratory and field observations not used in its construction. The EP scheme was implemented in a 0D parcel model. It confirms that biological IN account for most of the total IN activation at temperatures warmer than −20°C and at colder temperatures dust and soot become increasingly more important to ice nucleation.

scholarly journals Heterogeneous ice nucleation on atmospheric aerosols: a review of results from laboratory experiments

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 12531-12621 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Hoose ◽  
O. Möhler
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Mineral Dust ◽  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Pollen Grains ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Nucleation Theory ◽  
Classical Nucleation Theory ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation

Abstract. A small subset of the atmospheric aerosol population has the ability to induce ice formation at conditions under which ice would not form without them (heterogeneous ice nucleation). While no closed theoretical description of this process and the requirements for good ice nuclei is available, numerous studies have attempted to quantify the ice nucleation ability of different particles empirically in laboratory experiments. In this article, an overview of these results is provided. Ice nucleation onset conditions for various mineral dust, soot, biological, organic and ammonium sulphate particles are summarized. Typical temperature-supersaturation regions can be identified for the onset of ice nucleation of these different particle types, but the various particle sizes and activated fractions reported in different studies have to be taken into account when comparing results obtained with different methodologies. When intercomparing only data obtained under the same conditions, it is found that dust mineralogy is not a consistent predictor of higher or lower ice nucleation ability. However, the broad majority of studies agrees on a reduction of deposition nucleation by various coatings on mineral dust. The ice nucleation active surface site (INAS) density is discussed as a normalized measure for ice nucleation activity. For most immersion and condensation freezing measurements on mineral dust, estimates of the temperature-dependent INAS density agree within about two orders of magnitude. For deposition nucleation on dust, the spread is significantly larger, but a general trend of increasing INAS densities with increasing supersaturation is found. For soot, the presently available results are divergent. Estimated average INAS densities are high for ice-nucleation active bacteria at high subzero temperatures. At the same time, it is shown that some other biological aerosols, like certain pollen grains and fungal spores, are not intrinsically better ice nuclei than dust, but owe their high ice nucleation onsets to their large sizes. Surface-area-dependent parameterizations of heterogeneous ice nucleation are discussed. For immersion freezing on mineral dust, fitted INAS densities are available, but should not be used outside the temperature interval of the data they were based on. Classical nucleation theory, if employed with one fitted contact angle, does not reproduce the observed temperature dependence for immersion nucleation, temperature and supersaturation dependence for deposition nucleation, and time dependence.

scholarly journals The ice nucleation ability of one of the most abundant types of fungal spores found in the atmosphere

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1191-1201 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Iannone ◽  
D. I. Chernoff ◽  
A. Pringle ◽  
S. T. Martin ◽  
A. K. Bertram
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Freezing Temperature ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Spore Surface ◽  
Water Droplets ◽  
Atmospheric Measurements ◽  
Biological Particles ◽  
Ice Nuclei

Abstract. Recent atmospheric measurements show that biological particles are a potentially important class of ice nuclei. Types of biological particles that may be good ice nuclei include bacteria, pollen and fungal spores. We studied the ice nucleation properties of water droplets containing fungal spores from the genus Cladosporium, one of the most abundant types of spores found in the atmosphere. For water droplets containing a Cladosporium spore surface area of ~217 μm2 (equivalent to ~5 spores with average diameters of 3.2 μm ), 1% of the droplets froze by −28.5 °C and 10% froze by –30.1 °C. However, there was a strong dependence on freezing temperature with the spore surface area of Cladosporium within a given droplet. Mean freezing temperatures for droplets containing 1–5 spores are expected to be approximately −35.1 ± 2.3 °C (1σ S. D.). Atmospheric ice nucleation on spores of Cladosporium sp., or other spores with similar surface properties, thus do not appear to explain recent atmospheric measurements showing that biological particles participate as atmospheric ice nuclei. The poor ice nucleation ability of Cladosporium sp. may be attributed to the surface which is coated with hydrophobins (a class of hydrophobic proteins that appear to be widespread in filamentous fungi). Given the ubiquity of hydrophobins on spore surfaces, the current study may be applicable to many fungal species of atmospheric importance.

scholarly journals Macromolecular fungal ice nuclei in <i>Fusarium</i>: effects of physical and chemical processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 4647-4659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna T. Kunert ◽  
Mira L. Pöhlker ◽  
Kai Tang ◽  
Carola S. Krevert ◽  
Carsten Wieder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fusarium Species ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Genus Fusarium ◽  
Biological Particles ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Nucleation Activity ◽  
Ice Nucleation Activity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Atmospherically Relevant

Abstract. Some biological particles and macromolecules are particularly efficient ice nuclei (IN), triggering ice formation at temperatures close to 0 ∘C. The impact of biological particles on cloud glaciation and the formation of precipitation is still poorly understood and constitutes a large gap in the scientific understanding of the interactions and coevolution of life and climate. Ice nucleation activity in fungi was first discovered in the cosmopolitan genus Fusarium, which is widespread in soil and plants, has been found in atmospheric aerosol and cloud water samples, and can be regarded as the best studied ice-nucleation-active (IN-active) fungus. The frequency and distribution of ice nucleation activity within Fusarium, however, remains elusive. Here, we tested more than 100 strains from 65 different Fusarium species for ice nucleation activity. In total, ∼11 % of all tested species included IN-active strains, and ∼16 % of all tested strains showed ice nucleation activity above −12 ∘C. Besides Fusarium species with known ice nucleation activity, F. armeniacum, F. begoniae, F. concentricum, and F. langsethiae were newly identified as IN-active. The cumulative number of IN per gram of mycelium for all tested Fusarium species was comparable to other biological IN like Sarocladium implicatum, Mortierella alpina, and Snomax®. Filtration experiments indicate that cell-free ice-nucleating macromolecules (INMs) from Fusarium are smaller than 100 kDa and that molecular aggregates can be formed in solution. Long-term storage and freeze–thaw cycle experiments revealed that the fungal IN in aqueous solution remain active over several months and in the course of repeated freezing and thawing. Exposure to ozone and nitrogen dioxide at atmospherically relevant concentration levels also did not affect the ice nucleation activity. Heat treatments at 40 to 98 ∘C, however, strongly reduced the observed IN concentrations, confirming earlier hypotheses that the INM in Fusarium largely consists of a proteinaceous compound. The frequency and the wide distribution of ice nucleation activity within the genus Fusarium, combined with the stability of the IN under atmospherically relevant conditions, suggest a larger implication of fungal IN on Earth’s water cycle and climate than previously assumed.

scholarly journals Detecting changes in Arctic methane emissions: limitations of the inter-polar difference of atmospheric mole fractions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar B. Dimdore-Miles ◽  
Paul I. Palmer ◽  
Lori P. Bruhwiler
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. We consider the utility of the annual inter-polar difference (IPD) as a metric for changes in Arctic emission of methane (CH4). The IPD has been previously defined as the difference between weighted annual means of CH4 mole fraction data collected at polar stations (−53° > latitude > 53°). This subtraction approach (IPDΔ) implicitly assumes that extra-polar CH4 emissions arrive within the same calendar year at both poles. Using an analytic approach we show that a comprehensive description of the IPD includes terms corresponding to the atmospheric transport of air masses from lower latitudes to the polar regions. We show the importance of these transport flux terms in understanding the IPD using idealized numerical experiments with the TM5 global 3-D atmospheric chemistry transport model run from 1980 to 2010. A northern mid-latitude pulse in January 1990, which increases prior emission distributions, arrives at the Arctic with a higher mixing ratio and ≃ 12 months earlier than at the Antarctic. The perturbation at the poles subsequently decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃ 4 years. A similarly timed pulse emitted from the tropics arrives with a higher value at the Antarctic ≃ 11 months earlier than at the Arctic. This perturbation decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃ 7 years. These simulations demonstrate that the assumption of symmetric transport of extra-polar emissions to the poles is not realistic, resulting in considerable IPDΔ variations due to variations in emissions and atmospheric transport. We assess how well the annual IPD can detect a constant annual growth rate of Arctic emissions for three scenarios, 0.5 %, 1 %, and 2 %, superimposed on signals from lower latitudes, including random noise. We find that it can take up to 16 years to detect the smallest prescribed trend in Arctic emissions at the 95 % confidence level. Scenarios with higher, but likely unrealistic, growth in Arctic emissions are detected in less than a decade. We argue that a more reliable measurement-driven IPD metric would include data collected from all latitudes, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a global monitoring network to observe decadal changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

scholarly journals Spores of many common airborne fungi reveal no ice nucleation activity in oil immersion freezing experiments

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 8083-8091 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. G. Pummer ◽  
L. Atanasova ◽  
H. Bauer ◽  
J. Bernardi ◽  
I. S. Druzhinina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fungal Spores ◽  
Airborne Fungi ◽  
Ice Nucleation ◽  
Freezing Stress ◽  
Fungal Strains ◽  
Biological Aerosols ◽  
Ice Nuclei ◽  
Immersion Freezing ◽  
Oil Emulsions ◽  
Ice Nucleation Activity

Abstract. Fungal spores are ubiquitous biological aerosols, which are considered to act as ice nuclei. In this study the ice nucleation (IN) activity of spores harvested from 29 fungal strains belonging to 21 different species was tested in the immersion freezing mode by microscopic observation of water-in-oil emulsions. Spores of 8 of these strains were also investigated in a microdroplet freezing array instrument. The focus was laid on species of economical, ecological or sanitary significance. Besides common molds (Ascomycota), some representatives of the widespread group of mushrooms (Basidiomycota) were also investigated. Fusarium avenaceum was the only sample showing IN activity at relatively high temperatures (about 264 K), while the other investigated fungal spores showed no freezing above 248 K. Many of the samples indeed froze at homogeneous ice nucleation temperatures (about 237 K). In combination with other studies, this suggests that only a limited number of species may act as atmospheric ice nuclei. This would be analogous to what is already known for the bacterial ice nuclei. Apart from that, we selected a set of fungal strains from different sites and exposed them to occasional freezing stress during their cultivation. This was in order to test if the exposure to a cold environment encourages the expression of ice nuclei during growth as a way of adaptation. Although the total protein expression was altered by this treatment, it had no significant impact on the IN activity.

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