The Ultimate Icebreaker: The Rhagium mordax Antifreeze Protein as a Universal Ice Nucleation Inhibitor

Antifreeze proteins were discovered quite some time ago. The protein from Rhagium mordax is considered one of the most active among them. The literature has demonstrated this protein’s ability to bind to the surface of ice, and its effect on the survival of R. mordax larvae has also been investigated. In this work, we examined the ability of this protein to inhibit ice nucleators of different origin. As ice nucleators, we selected inactivated P. syringae bacteria, silver iodide, and insoluble metal oxide powders, for which we had previously demonstrated the ability to act as ice nucleators at different temperatures. Since the R. mordax antifreeze protein blocks all biological and inorganic ice nucleators examined in this study, and taking into account its ability to structure water molecules on its surface, we hypothesized that R. mordax antifreeze protein can serve as a universal inhibitor of ice nucleator.