Microbial ice nucleation is important biotechnology for three reasons. First, preventing ice crystal formation using deletion mutants is a way to prevent frost damage; that is, "frost-ban" Pseudomads are a marketable product. Second, stimulating snow formation on artificial ski slopes extends the season; that is, ice-nucleating Pseudomonads are another marketable product. Third, the field testing of the "frost-ban" cells on strawberry plants occasioned some of the most emotional responses to release of recombinant DNA organisms.
G. Warren, P. Wobler, "Molecular aspects of microbial ice nucleation," Molecular Microbiology, 5, 239-43, February 1991. (DNA Plant Technology Corp., Oakland, Calif.) L.M. Kozloff, M.A. Turner, F. Arellano, M. Lute, "Phosphatidylinositol, a phospholipid of ice-nucleating bacteria," Journal of Bacteriology, 173, 2053-60, March 1991. (University of California, San Francisco)
Biological research follows in powerful fashions where shared ideas drive understanding. Bacterial sporulation was the dominant prokaryotic paradigm for cell development, and changing sigma factor RNA polymerase ...
