Antifreeze protein from Japanese fish: An epoch in biotechnology

COMP 132

Sakae Tsuda, Institute of Genome-Based Biofactory, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) - Japan, 2-17-2-1 Tsukisamu-Higashi, Toyohira, Sapporo, 062-8517, Japan
We have found that (1) many fish living off the north coast of Japan (~40 degrees latitude) express antifreeze proteins (AFPI ~ III) and (2) muscle of these fish can be used as a good source material for a mass purification of AFP [1], which will advance its biotechnological applications in many fields. For example, we recently could prepare an AFPIII-assembled plate (~600 million /cm2) that exerts ice-nucleation function, thereby freezing the attached water at around -1 degree. Besides the mechanical insight of the AFP-plate, our recent biotechnological progressions using a mass amount of fish AFP will be presented in the meeting. [1] Nishimiya, et al. (2005) FEBS, J., 272, 482-492.