Fluorescence and confocal microscopy studies of the ice surface - antifreeze protein interactions

PERTAYA N.; DI PRINZIO, CARLOS LEONARDO

Los Angeles, CA USA

Congreso; MAR05 Meeting of The American Physical Society; 2005

The American Physical Society

Biomineralization is a phenomenon in which biological material in°u-ences mineral growth on the molecular level. A compelling example in-volves antifreeze proteins (AFPs) known to prevent ¯sh and insects fromfreezing. AFPs have many potential applications in agriculture, biomed-ical science, and can be used as a model platform to understand biomin-eralization processes for future nanotechnology applications. Here wedescribe a new approach to study the interaction between AFPs and iceusing °uorescence and confocal microscopy combined with a unique icegrowth cell. After conjugating green °uorescent protein (GFP) to TypeIII AFP, we imaged the °uorescence signal around and inside of the icecrystals that emerged from the cooled AFP-GFP solution, and have ob-served an enhanced °uorescence signal at the edge of the ice crystal. Ina second cell we observed a dramatic change in the ice growth morphol-ogy when AFPs were introduced into an initially pure system. Furtherdevelopments of these methods will permit the direct imaging of the lo-cation and concentration of the AFPs on ice surfaces and enable a betterunderstanding of their operation. Supported by CIHR, the Bosack andKruger Foundation, Ohio and Yale Universities.