Adaptive radiation is usually triggered by ecological opportunity, arising through (i) the colonization of a new habitat by its progenitor; (ii) the extinction of competitors; or (iii) the emergence of an evolutionary key innovation in the ancestral lineage. Support for the key innovation hypothesis is scarce, however, even in textbook examples of adaptive radiation. Antifreeze glycoproteins (A...

Ice nucleation and growth is an important and widespread environmental process. Accordingly, nature has developed means to either promote or inhibit ice crystal formation, for example ice-nucleating proteins in bacteria or ice-binding antifreeze proteins in polar fish. Recently, it was found that birch pollen release ice-nucleating macromolecules when suspended in water. Here we show that birch...

A cold-responsive chitinase gene, BiCHT1, was isolated from bromegrass (Bromus inermis) 'Manchar' suspension cells. BiCHT1 messenger RNA was detected at low levels in nonstressed bromegrass cells, whereas its accumulation was induced by incubation at 10 degrees C and 4 degrees C as detected by northern- and western-blot analyses. BiCHT1 was highly homologous to rye CHT9, known to encode an anti...

Some cold water marine fishes avoid cellular damage because of freezing by expressing antifreeze proteins (AFPs) that bind to ice and inhibit its growth; one such protein is the globular type III AFP from eel pout. Despite several studies, the mechanism of ice binding remains unclear because of the difficulty in modeling the AFP-ice interaction. To further explore the mechanism, we have determi...

The viscosity and electrical conductivity as structure-sensitive transport properties of the liquid metals and alloys are important for modeling of the melting and solidification processes. The viscosity and electrical conductivity data provide additional information about the influence of impurities on the structure and physicochemical properties of the liquid metal matrix, which is useful for...

Yucatan hairless micropig (YHMP) skin has been shown to have histology and physiologic properties similar to human skin. To assess the relationship between the permeability of corticosteroid ointments and five types of commonly used admixtures of corticosteroid through hairless mice (HM) or YHMP skin and the clinical effects in humans, we conduct by in vitro experiments using HM and YHMP skin. ...

The influence of proteins and solutes on hysteresis of freezing and melting of water was measured by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Of the solutes examined, poly-L-arginine and flounder antifreeze protein produced the largest freezing point depression of water, with little effect on the melting temperature. Poly-L-lysine, poly-L-glutamate, cytochrome c and bovine serum albumin had less effect on t...

Alanine-rich α-helical (type I) antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are produced by a variety of fish species from three different orders to protect against freezing in icy seawater. Interspersed amongst and within these orders are fishes making AFPs that are completely different in both sequence and structure. The origin of this variety of types I, II, III and antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) has been ...

Antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) are able to bind ice, halt its growth, and the most potent inhibitors of ice recrystallization known. The structural basis for AFGP’s unique properties remains largely elusive. Here we determined antifreeze activities AFGP variants that constructed by chemically modifying hydroxyl groups disaccharide natural AFGPs. Using nuclear magnetic resonance, two-dimension...