Abstract
Insects that are cold-hardy but sensitive to freezing survive at low temperatures due to their capacity for supercooling—their supercooling points are below −25 °C. In addition to polyols, these insects produce proteinaceous thermal hysteresis antifreeze agents reported to prevent growth of ice crystals down to ∼−10 °C, thus stabilizing the supercooled insects down to this temperature1,2. We report here that in the beetle Rhagium inquisitor the ability of thermal hysteresis agents to prevent growth of ice crystals increases substantially when the crystal size is diminished. Thus, supercooled insects may be protected against growth of embryo ice crystals over their whole supercooling range, that is, they may be protected against freezing even during prolonged exposures to temperatures as low as −30 °C. The present observations are in accord with the prevalent theories for the action of antifreeze agents.
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Zachariassen, K., Husby, J. Antifreeze effect of thermal hysteresis agents protects highly supercooled insects. Nature 298, 865–867 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298865a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/298865a0
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