Expression and Targetting of Antifreeze Protiens in Transgenic Plants

冷冻储存的植物产品的质量可能会受到冷冻组织内冰生长的破坏性影响。已经确定了一些蛋白质，当浓度很低时，它们可以抑制冰晶的生长。我们将研究将其中一种蛋白质克隆到植物中的基因。此外，该基因将被修改，使其编码的蛋白质更大，更容易检测到(通过与金黄色葡萄球菌的A蛋白融合)，并从植物细胞中分泌(通过附着分泌信号序列)。将确定转化植物表达和定位融合蛋白的能力。测量冰晶在冷冻植物组织中生长所造成的损害的简单测试将被用来评估蛋白质保护这种损害的能力。这种方法提供了一种新的方法来提高冷冻水果和蔬菜的质量，并增加了可以成功冷冻的水果和蔬菜的范围。

The quality of plant products which have been frozen for storage can be compromised by the damaging effects of ice growth within the frozen tissue. A number of proteins have been identified which can inhibit ice crystal growth when present in very low concentrations. We will study a gene for one of these proteins cloned into plants. In addition, the gene will be modified so that the protein it codes for is larger and more easily detected (by fusion to protein A from Staphylococcus aureus), and is secreted from plant cells (by the attachment of secretion signal sequences). The ability of the transformed plants to express and localise the fusion proteins will be determined. Simple assays which measure the damage caused by ice crystal growth in frozen plant tissue will be used to assess the ability of the protein to protect against this damage. This approach offers a novel way of improving the quality of frozen fruits and vegetables, and increasing the range of fruits and vegetables that can be successfully frozen.