Nucleic acid sequences encoding type III tenebrio antifreeze proteins and method for assaying activity

Abstract

A recrystallization inhibition method for determining the presence, relative concentration, and/or activity of thermal hysteresis proteins comprising: providing a proteinaceous composition in a solvent to form a test solution; flash freezing said solution; raising the temperature of the frozen solution to an appropriate annealing temperature that allows for a partial melt, while limiting heterogeneity in ice grain sizes within said solution; maintaining said frozen solution at the annealing temperature for a length of time sufficient to allow for recrystallization; monitoring the ice crystal grain size changes over time; and determining the presence of functional thermal hysteresis proteins in said solution given the retention of significantly smaller ice crystal grain sizes relative to at least one control solution.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.