Plant and Insect Thermal Hysteresis Antifreeze Proteins

产生热滞现象的抗冻蛋白降低了冰点 通过一种特殊的机制使水达到熔点，但不是熔点 这使得它们成为非常有效的防冻剂。这些防冻剂 在许多冷血动物中已经报道了AFP （极地海洋鱼类，昆虫，蜘蛛，蜈蚣），但他们有 在鱼类中进行了最好的研究， 已被充分理解，某些AFP基因已被克隆， 转移到其他生物体（鲑鱼，植物，细菌）。 松毛虫越冬幼虫的甲胎蛋白 canadensis是目前已知的最活跃的AFP。研究 这一建议所概述的将使我们能够继续开展工作， 这些有趣的AFP AFP的生化特性 将继续，此外，我们将克隆Dendroides AFP 基因将对该基因进行测序，提供氨基酸序列 并与鱼类AFP进行比较。还 AFP在表皮细胞膜中的功能 就在幼虫的角质层下面。这些 研究将进一步了解AFP在以下方面的作用： 昆虫耐寒性由于这种AFP的高活性， 研究结果可以应用于低温保存，农业 冷冻食品技术。

Thermal hysteresis producing antifreeze proteins lower the freezing point, but not the melting point, of water by a special mechanism which makes them extremely effective antifreezes. These antifreeze proteins (AFPs) have been reported in many cold blooded animals (polar marine fishes, insects, spiders, centipedes), but they have been best studied in fish where the biochemistry of the AFPs are well understood and certain of the AFP genes have cloned and transferred to other organisms (salmon, plants, bacteria). The AFPs from the overwintering larvae of the beetle Dendroides canadensis are by far the most active AFPs known. The studies outlined in this proposal will allow us to continue our work on these interesting AFPs. Biochemical characterization of the AFP will continue and in addition we will clone the Dendroides AFP gene. The gene will be sequenced, providing the amino acid sequence of the protein and allowing comparisons to the fish AFPs. Also, the function of the AFPs in the membranes of epidermal cells located just under the cuticle of the larvae will be investigated. These studies will further our understanding of the role of AFPs in insect cold tolerance. Because of the high activity of this AFP the results could have applications in cryopreservation, agriculture and frozen food technology.