Thermal hysteresis activity of antifreeze proteins: A model based on fractional statistics theory of adsorption

LOPEZ ORTIZ, J.I.; QUIROGA, E.; NARAMBUENA, C.F.; RICCARDO, J.L.; RAMIREZ-PASTOR, A.J.

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2021 vol. 575 p. 1260461 - 12604613

0378-4371

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) adsorb to the surface of embryonic ice crystals to preventtheir growth. The protein-ice adsorption lowers the freezing point of the solution.Then, a thermal hysteresis can be defined as the difference between the melting andfreezing temperatures. This quantity is a measure of the antifreeze protein activity. Inthis sense, there exists evidence that the antifreeze activity enhances with increasing thearea/length of the ice-binding sites. In order to interpret this thermal hysteresis behavior,we introduce a two-dimensional adsorption model based on fractional statistics theory.The analytical expressions are obtained in terms of an exclusion parameter, whichdepend on the structure of the protein and area of the ice-binding sites. By using themodel, thermal hysteresis activity is calculated for AFPs of different size, shape andnumber of active sites. The theoretical results show a good qualitative agreement withreported experimental data in the literature.