A Protein Found In Fungi Could Help Turn Water Into Ice at High Subzero Temperatures

A Protein Found In Fungi Could Help Turn Water Into Ice at High Subzero Temperatures

Learn how a specific type of fungus can accelerate ice formation at subzero temperatures and lead to advances in technology, such as cloud seeding.

Fungal Species Discovered With The Ability To Freeze Water - Astrobiology

Ice-nucleating proteins (INpros) catalyze ice formation at high subzero temperatures, with major biological and environmental implications. While bacterial INpros have been structurally characterized, their counterparts in other organisms have remained largely unknown. Here, we identify membrane-independent proteins in fungi of the Mortierellaceae family that promote ice formation with high efficiency. These proteins are predicted to […] The pos…

Fantastic fungi found with ability to freeze water

Can fungi influence the weather? Turns out, they just might. An international group of researchers that includes Virginia Tech’s Xiaofeng Wang and Boris A. Vinatzer discovered the identity of fungal proteins that can catalyze ice formation at high subzero temperatures. The research is published in Science Advances. One potential application of this discovery could be to engineer weather. In a process called cloud seeding, particles that can trig…