Some Species Are Not Freezing In The Winter

Beetle

For more than 3 decades, researchers from Queen's University Biochemistry, Peter Davies has revealed the mystery of why some organisms, including insects and fish do not freeze in the winter (snow).

Research by Peter Davies reveals antifreeze protein (AFP) which gives a new insight in the research report on the original Beetle. "This study found that the majority of active AFP today in 'longhorn' beetle, where we hypothesize that this has gone through the process of evolution. AFP be more effective," he said, as quoted Phys, Tuesday (05/14/2013) .

Davies in collaboration with a team of researchers from Yale University to uncover how insects and antifreeze (antifreeze) can be created. To that end, they conducted a study involving temperature of minus 40 degrees Celsius.

At temperatures below the freezing point, the beetle is able to produce AFP to stop the growth of ice that can form on their internal fluids. Thus, the beetle can survive and prevent damage from freezing on their body system.

AFP which are in the living organisms is protects the insect tissues. By binding to ice, AFP prevents ice from spreading and freezing organisms.

Some organisms that live in the cold weather has some level of AFP, such as insects, fish, plants, bacteria, algae and fungi. On practical applications, ice cream manufacturers began adding AFP on their low-fat products to prevent large ice crystals from forming in ice cream.

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