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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Ice binding protein activity is common among intertidal invertebrates in British Columbia Moyes, Nathaniel
Abstract
Intertidal invertebrates often adopt freeze tolerance as a strategy to survive winter low tides, but the physiological mechanisms by which intertidal species survive freezing is not well understood. Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) may play an important role, but their occurrence throughout the intertidal zone worldwide is not well-catalogued. Here I survey species in the intertidal zone of Vancouver, BC to assess IBP activities and the possible role they play in freeze tolerance. I conducted targeted assays in multiple intertidal species to measure three distinct activities of IBPs: ice nucleation (IN), ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI), and thermal hysteresis (TH), and showed that some activities were decreased when proteins were denatured. I also exposed intertidal species to a cold exposure mimicking a freezing event in the intertidal and measured survival post-exposure. I found that species with the highest degree of freeze tolerance display IN activity attributable to proteins. I also identified three species –Mytilus trossulus, Magallana gigas, and Lottia persona – that showed evidence of containing IRI proteins. I found no measurable TH in any species, but there is evidence that TH proteins may be present in at least five species as evidenced by characteristic ice shaping activity seen in the nanoliter osmometer. I also found that species that live in the high intertidal appear to show more IBP activity than species that live lower in the intertidal. This thesis significantly increases the number of known intertidal species with IBPs, and provides a framework for sampling new species for IBP activity in the intertidal and elsewhere.
Item Metadata
| Title |
Ice binding protein activity is common among intertidal invertebrates in British Columbia
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| Creator | |
| Supervisor | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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| Date Issued |
2024
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| Description |
Intertidal invertebrates often adopt freeze tolerance as a strategy to survive winter low tides, but the physiological mechanisms by which intertidal species survive freezing is not well understood. Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) may play an important role, but their occurrence throughout the intertidal zone worldwide is not well-catalogued. Here I survey species in the intertidal zone of Vancouver, BC to assess IBP activities and the possible role they play in freeze tolerance. I conducted targeted assays in multiple intertidal species to measure three distinct activities of IBPs: ice nucleation (IN), ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI), and thermal hysteresis (TH), and showed that some activities were decreased when proteins were denatured. I also exposed intertidal species to a cold exposure mimicking a freezing event in the intertidal and measured survival post-exposure. I found that species with the highest degree of freeze tolerance display IN activity attributable to proteins. I also identified three species –Mytilus trossulus, Magallana gigas, and Lottia persona – that showed evidence of containing IRI proteins. I found no measurable TH in any species, but there is evidence that TH proteins may be present in at least five species as evidenced by characteristic ice shaping activity seen in the nanoliter osmometer. I also found that species that live in the high intertidal appear to show more IBP activity than species that live lower in the intertidal. This thesis significantly increases the number of known intertidal species with IBPs, and provides a framework for sampling new species for IBP activity in the intertidal and elsewhere.
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| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
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| Date Available |
2024-12-20
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| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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| Rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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| DOI |
10.14288/1.0447588
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| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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| Graduation Date |
2025-05
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| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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| Rights URI | |
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International