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Home / Cryoletters, Volume 46, Number 2

Open Access PERSPECTIVE: Strategies used by organisms to survive very cold climates ‐ student’s guide

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Authors: Chesterfield, S.P.; Joyce, H.V.; Fooks, T.D.; Wilson, P.W.

Source: Cryoletters, Volume 46, Number 2, March 2025, pp. 67-73(7)

Publisher: Cryoletters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54680/fr25210110112

This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence.

We briefly examine how cold-hardiness in general, including freeze-tolerance, freeze-avoidance and dehydration strategies allow survival in cold climates, through the eyes of some specific insects and fish. Strategies do vary with geography and latitude, even between two types of insects living in the same area. We look at ice nucleation proteins to enhance freezing and antifreeze proteins to help avoid ice formation or, in some cases, to hinder what is known as recrystallization, as a frozen organism thaws.

Keywords: ANTIFREEZE; COLD-HARDINESS; FREEZE-TOLERANCE; NUCLEATION; SUPERCOOLING

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: One School Global, Sydney, Australia

Publication date: March 1, 2025

More about this publication?

  • CryoLetters is a bimonthly international journal for low temperature sciences, including cryobiology, cryopreservation or vitrification of cells and tissues, chemical and physical aspects of freezing and drying, and studies involving ecology of cold environments, and cold adaptation

    The journal publishes original research reports, authoritative reviews, technical developments and commissioned book reviews of studies of the effects produced by low temperatures on a wide variety of scientific and technical processes, or those involving low temperature techniques in the investigation of physical, chemical, biological and ecological problems.

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