STABILIZATION OF SUPERCOOLED FLUIDS BY THERMAL HYSTERESIS PROTEINS

It has been reported that thermal hysteresis proteins found in many co ld-hardy, freeze-avoiding arthropods stabilize their supercooled body fluids. We give evidence that fish antifreeze proteins, which also pro duce thermal hysteresis, bind to and reduce the efficiency of heteroge nous nucleation sites, rather than binding to embryonic ice nuclei. We discuss both possible mechanisms for stabilization of supercooled bod y fluids and also describe a new method for measuring and defining the supercooling point of small volumes of liquid.