Metabolomic Fingerprint of Cryo-Stress in a Freeze Tolerant Insect

This study employed ¹H NMR spectroscopy to assay the metabolome of the high Arctic freeze-tolerant dipteran larvae, Heleomyza borealis, after recovery from exposure to a range of sub-zero temperature treatments. Our data demonstrate the resilience of freeze tolerance in individuals of this permanently freeze-tolerant species that were acclimated to summer temperatures (5°C): recovery of homeostasis after 48h was not significantly disturbed by 2h exposures to -3, -12, or -20°C. Evidence of homeostatic perturbation to cryo-stress – both in terms of changes in specific metabolite concentrations as well as systemic changes in metabolism determined using multivariate pattern recognition techniques – was expressed almost entirely at a temperature coincident with the significant onset of mortality (-25°C) and considerably below the minimum winter temperatures of its over-wintering habitat (c.-12°C).