© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014.Several polar microalgae are able to live and thrive in the extreme environment found within sea ice, where growing ice crystals may cause mechanical damage to the cells and reduce the organisms’ living space. Among the strategies adopted by these organisms to cope with the harsh conditions in their environment, ice binding proteins (IBPs) seem to play a key role and possibly contribute to their success in sea ice. IBPs have the ability to control ice crystal growth. In nature they are widespread among sea ice microalgae, and their mechanism of function is of interest for manifold potential applications. Here we describe methods for a classical determination of the IBP activity (thermal hysteresis, recrystallization inhibition) and further methods for protein characterization (ice pitting assay, determination of the nucleating temperature).

Item Type:	Research Book Chapter
Research Division:	Physical Sciences
Research Group:	Medical and biological physics
Research Field:	Biological physics
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences
UTAS Author:	Wilson, PW (Professor Peter Wilson)
ID Code:	91602
Year Published:	2014
Deposited By:	Faculty of Health
Deposited On:	2014-05-22
Last Modified:	2017-11-01
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