Fluorescence microscopy studies of the hyperactive an-

PERTAYA N.; DI PRINZIO, CARLOS LEONARDO

Baltimore, MD USA

Congreso; Meeting of The American Physical Society 2006; 2006

The American Physical Society

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) protect animals from freez-ing by binding to extracellular ice and inhibiting its growth. Since theinitial discovery of AFPs in ¯sh, non-homologous types have been foundin insects, plants, bacteria, fungi, and vertebrates. Di®erent AFP typeshave diverse structures and varied activities. For example, AFPs pro-duced by insects are much more active in inhibiting ice crystal growthcompared to most AFPs found in ¯sh or plants. By putting a °uores-cent tag on an insect AFP we were able to visualize AFP binding to ice,to determine the ice crystal surfaces to which the AFP adheres, and tofollow the kinetics of AFP binding to ice. We expect this approach willcontribute to a better understanding of the mechanism of AFP activityand in particular the hyperactivity of insect AFPs.