Inhibition of ice melting by antifreeze protein

抗冻蛋白（AFP）是一种存在于寒冷地区生物体内的蛋白质，具有抑制冰生长的功能。AFP还有望抑制冰的融化。然而，关于AFP的解链抑制作用的报道很少。在本研究中，基于仅在阴性晶体系统中可以检测到融化抑制的假设，使用阴性晶体系统检查了冰晶的融化，其中AFP溶液被冰晶包围。结果表明，AFP可以通过作用于特定的冰晶面来抑制甚至高于平衡融化温度的冰融化。

Antifreeze protein (AFP), which has been discovered in several organisms living in cold regions, has a function to inhibit ice growth. AFP is also expected to inhibit ice melting. However, there are few reports on melting inhibition by AFP. In this study, melting of ice crystal was examined using a negative crystal system, where AFP solution is surrounded by an ice crystal, based on the hypothesis that the melting inhibition can be detected only in a negative crystal system. The results showed that AFP can inhibit ice melting at temperatures even above the equilibrium melting temperature by acting on specific ice crystal planes.