SURVIVING ATTRIBUTE OF PSYCHROTOLERANT LIFE FORMS: ICE BINDING PROTEINSVANDANA GUPTA, SHWETA RAJORIYA, MEGHA PANDEY AND AMIT KUMAR JHAAbstract Periodic or continuous exposure to very low temperatures in psychrotolerant enhances production of few specific molecules that prevent them from freezing, called Ice binding proteins. Psychrophiles is capable of synthesizing some important proteins & peptides that can regulate growth of ice crystals and these are named Ice Binding Proteins (IBPs). Ice binding proteins are specialized proteins that are less popular but extremely crucial. Antifreeze proteins (AFP) are among them only that enhance the formation of large grains of ice inside cells that damage cellular organs or cause cell death. The unique ice recrystallization inhibition properties (IRI) and thermal hysteresis (TH) have become one of the promising tools in industrial applications such as cryobiology, food storage and others. This article summarizes the functions and applications of the large group of IBPs. |