Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are a subset of ice-binding proteins that control ice crystal growth. They have potential for the cryopreservation of cells, tissues, and organs, as well as for production and storage of food and protection of crops from frost. However, the detailed mechanism of action of AFPs is still unclear. Specifically, there is controversy regarding reversibility of binding of AFPs to crystal surfaces. The experimentally observed dependence of activity of AFPs on their concentration in solution appears to indicate that the binding is reversible. Here, by a series of experiments in temperature-controlled microfluidic devices, where the medium surrounding ice crystals can be exchanged, we show that the binding of hyperactive Tenebrio molitor AFP to ice crystals is practically irreversible and that surface-bound AFPs are sufficient to inhibit ice crystal growth even in solutions depleted of AFPs. These findings rule out theories of AFP activity relying on the presence of unbound protein molecules.thermal hysteresis | ice structuring proteins A ntifreeze proteins (AFPs) are found in a variety of coldadapted organisms, where they serve as inhibitors of ice crystal growth and recrystallization (1, 2). These proteins are a subset of an expanding group of identified proteins, whose salient feature is ice binding (3, 4). AFPs are characterized by their ability to cause a temperature difference (hysteresis) in the melting and freezing of ice and are classified as hyperactive or moderately active according to the magnitude of their freezing hysteresis (FH) activity (5). The FH activity is defined as the difference between the melting temperature of ice crystals and the nonequilibrium freezing temperature at which rapid crystal growth commences. Although the FH activity has been investigated for more than four decades, the actual mechanism of action of AFPs is still not clear. This is partly because the interactions between molecules of AFPs, water, and ice at the ice-water interface are difficult to study experimentally due to the delicate, transitory nature of the ice-water interface.FH activity is thought to be due to an adsorption-inhibition mechanism that states that AFPs bind to ice surfaces and allow ice crystal growth only in surface regions between the bound AFP molecules (6, 7). This patchy growth pattern causes increased local microcurvature of the ice front that leads to larger surface energy, making the transformation of water into ice less energetically favorable and thus reducing the freezing temperature (GibbsThompson effect). It has been argued that the binding of AFPs to ice surfaces must be irreversible, because AFP desorption would result in rapid crystal growth in the areas where the AFP molecules have been desorbed from the ice surface (6,8). This theory has been criticized for assuming that the ice-water interface is sharp, contrary to the experimental evidence that the transitions from an ordered solid phase to a liquid phase at the ice-water interfaces are gradual and occur over seve...

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) bind to ice crystals and control their structure, enlargement, and melting, thereby helping their host organisms to avoid injuries associated with ice growth. IBPs are useful in applications where ice growth control is necessary, such as cryopreservation, food storage, and anti-icing. The study of an IBP's mechanism of action is limited by the technological difficulties of in situ observations of molecules at the dynamic interface between ice and water. We describe herein a new, to our knowledge, apparatus designed to generate a controlled temperature gradient in a microfluidic chip, called a microfluidic cold finger (MCF). This device allows growth of a stable ice crystal that can be easily manipulated with or without IBPs in solution. Using the MCF, we show that the fluorescence signal of IBPs conjugated to green fluorescent protein is reduced upon freezing and recovers at melting. This finding strengthens the evidence for irreversible binding of IBPs to their ligand, ice. We also used the MCF to demonstrate the basal-plane affinity of several IBPs, including a recently described IBP from Rhagium inquisitor. Use of the MCF device, along with a temperature-controlled setup, provides a relatively simple and robust technique that can be widely used for further analysis of materials at the ice/water interface.

We present a microfluidic centrifuge with no moving parts, relying on a vortex formed between two counterflowing liquid streams. The centrifuge is driven by streams with a speed of 0.6-2.6 m/s, resulting in accelerations applied to samples between 50 and 2,000 g. The liquid flow in the centrifugation chamber and the transport of microparticles are visualized using epi-fluorescence microscopy and bright-field imaging with a high-speed camera. It is found that small particles follow the streamlines of the flow, whereas larger particles show a crossstream migration. The size separation of different particles is demonstrated, and the experiments clearly indicate that as the flow speed increases, the particles in the vortex are increasingly driven outwards. Per construction, the centrifuge is ideally suited for handling small sample amounts and can be integrated with lab-on-a-chip systems.