Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy
Insects are able to survive subfreezing temperatures by either limiting ice crystal formation in their bodies or through freeze avoidance. Beetle larvae are able to avoid freezing in winter by dehydrating in the fall months and replacing their body water content with high concentrations of glycerol....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley-VCH
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Small Science |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202500058 |
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| author | Chris J. Benmore Leighanne C. Gallington Henry Vu John G. Duman Brian M. Barnes Todd L. Sformo |
| author_facet | Chris J. Benmore Leighanne C. Gallington Henry Vu John G. Duman Brian M. Barnes Todd L. Sformo |
| author_sort | Chris J. Benmore |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Insects are able to survive subfreezing temperatures by either limiting ice crystal formation in their bodies or through freeze avoidance. Beetle larvae are able to avoid freezing in winter by dehydrating in the fall months and replacing their body water content with high concentrations of glycerol. This enables the body fluid of the insect to supercool, and even vitrify, recovering unharmed when the temperature warms in the spring. Using nondestructive, high‐energy X‐ray synchrotron diffraction experiments, direct insight into how cryopreservation occurs at the atomic level within the beetle larvae has been obtained. The results shed light on the molecular‐level interactions associated with the mechanism responsible for surviving freezing temperatures. The molecular models of severely dehydrated Alaskan beetle larvae, based on glycerol‐water mixtures, yield a total of 4.2 ± 1.2 intermolecular hydrogen bonds per glycerol molecule at 275 K, in good agreement with existing molecular dynamics simulations. Most importantly, they show that if just over half the body fluid content is water, the water clusters are too small to form ice crystals that cause cellular damage. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2d4aa6c24d344bbb9a59ae7d89263e59 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2688-4046 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley-VCH |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Small Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-2d4aa6c24d344bbb9a59ae7d89263e592025-08-20T02:39:40ZengWiley-VCHSmall Science2688-40462025-06-0156n/an/a10.1002/smsc.202500058Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival StrategyChris J. Benmore0Leighanne C. Gallington1Henry Vu2John G. Duman3Brian M. Barnes4Todd L. Sformo5X‐Ray Science Division Advanced Photon Source Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL 60439 USAX‐Ray Science Division Advanced Photon Source Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL 60439 USADepartment of Biological Sciences University of Notre Dame Box 369 Notre Dame IN 46556 USADepartment of Biological Sciences University of Notre Dame Box 369 Notre Dame IN 46556 USAInstitute of Arctic Biology University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks AK 99723 USAInstitute of Arctic Biology University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks AK 99723 USAInsects are able to survive subfreezing temperatures by either limiting ice crystal formation in their bodies or through freeze avoidance. Beetle larvae are able to avoid freezing in winter by dehydrating in the fall months and replacing their body water content with high concentrations of glycerol. This enables the body fluid of the insect to supercool, and even vitrify, recovering unharmed when the temperature warms in the spring. Using nondestructive, high‐energy X‐ray synchrotron diffraction experiments, direct insight into how cryopreservation occurs at the atomic level within the beetle larvae has been obtained. The results shed light on the molecular‐level interactions associated with the mechanism responsible for surviving freezing temperatures. The molecular models of severely dehydrated Alaskan beetle larvae, based on glycerol‐water mixtures, yield a total of 4.2 ± 1.2 intermolecular hydrogen bonds per glycerol molecule at 275 K, in good agreement with existing molecular dynamics simulations. Most importantly, they show that if just over half the body fluid content is water, the water clusters are too small to form ice crystals that cause cellular damage.https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202500058cryopreservationfreeze avoidanceglycerol–watermolecular modelingvitrificationX‐ray diffraction |
| spellingShingle | Chris J. Benmore Leighanne C. Gallington Henry Vu John G. Duman Brian M. Barnes Todd L. Sformo Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy Small Science cryopreservation freeze avoidance glycerol–water molecular modeling vitrification X‐ray diffraction |
| title | Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy |
| title_full | Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy |
| title_fullStr | Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy |
| title_short | Supercooling of Alaskan Beetle Larvae as a Winter Survival Strategy |
| title_sort | supercooling of alaskan beetle larvae as a winter survival strategy |
| topic | cryopreservation freeze avoidance glycerol–water molecular modeling vitrification X‐ray diffraction |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202500058 |
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