Category: Uncategorized

LIQUID CRYSTAL MEMBRANES. "Increased contents of unsaturated, polyunsaturated, and methyl-branched fatty acids with high proportion of cis-unsaturated double bonds and antesio-branched fatty acids allow the membrane to remain in a liquid crystalline state (through reduced gel-liquid-crystalline phase transition temperature, Tm) at low temperatures." https://lnkd.in/dz9R9uY View in LinkedIn

COLD ADAPTED MEMBRANE LIPIDS. "In general, lower growth temperatures produce a higher content of unsaturated, polyunsaturated and methyl-branched fatty acids, and/or a shorter acyl-chain length, with studies reporting a high proportion of cis-unsaturated double-bonds and antesio-branched fatty acids." https://lnkd.in/dxAsq4S View in LinkedIn

EXTREME COLD MEMBRANES. "Membranes and enzymes become rigid at low temperatures. Reduced membrane fluidity results in reduced membrane permeability and adversely affects the transport of nutrients and waste products across the membrane." https://lnkd.in/dz9R9uY View in LinkedIn

FREEZING AND VISCOUS NICHES. "Psychrophilic Archaea, cold-loving organisms ... inhabit areas below 15 'C and often thrive at temperatures near the freezing point of water. Permanent exposure to cold has necessitated adaptations to overcome two main challenges: low temperature and the viscosity of aqueous environments." https://lnkd.in/dz9R9uY View in LinkedIn

COLD EXTREMOPHILES. "Psychrophiles have successfully overcome two main challenges: first, low temperature, because any decrease in temperature exponentially affects the rate of biochemical reactions; and second, the viscosity of aqueous environments, which increases by a factor higher than two between 37 °C and 0 °C." https://lnkd.in/dxAsq4S View in LinkedIn

COLD ADAPTED EXTREMOPHILES are frequently marine, and salt water presents special challenges. Salt water freezes at lower temperatures than fresh water. Freezing seas segregate salt and fresh water during ice formation, so when it melts, the organisms get an osmotic shock, just to add to their discomfort. View in LinkedIn

EXTREME INSECTS. "During the extreme winter months, the spruce budworm resists freezing at temperatures approaching –30 °C. The Alaskan beetle Upis ceramboides can survive in a temperature of –60 °C by using antifreeze agents that are not proteins." https://lnkd.in/dtV8vVP View in LinkedIn

HETEROGENEITY OF SEA ICE. Sea ice is enormously varied, ever-changing, highly complex environment as assessed by numerous parameters. It presents numerous very different habitats for microorganisms, with different chemistry, ice structures, and physical properties. https://lnkd.in/dwnrxh3 View in LinkedIn

LIQUID NITROGEN. "Many microbes and cell lines can be preserved successfully at -196 'C (liquid nitrogen), but the lowest recorded temperature for active microbial communities is substantially higher, at -18 'C ... ice crystals can rip cell membranes, and solution chemistry stops in the absence of liquid water. Freezing of intracellular water is almost invariably lethal." https://lnkd.in/diUg6FS View in LinkedIn

DIVERSE FAMILY. "Antifreeze proteins adsorb to the surface of ice crystals and prevent their growth. This adsorption lowers the freezing temperature of a solution below its melting point. Despite their common function, AFPs display remarkable diversity in their tertiary structures. This diversity results partly from their independent evolutionary origins and partly from the surface heterogeneity of their natural ligand, ice." http://www.pnas.org/content/108/18/7363.full View in LinkedIn