Freezing avoidance in fishes

1.What is the freezing point of seawater with full-strength

solutes?
Answer: -1.86 °C

2.Why is it challenging for marine bony fishes to survive in polar

seas?
Answer: Freezing temperatures and the risk of ice formation.

3.What is the primary survival strategy for cold-water marine

teleost fish?
Answer: Avoiding freezing.

4.At what depth does ice formation generally not occur due to
hydrostatic pressure?
Answer: Below 30 meters.

5.What is the colligative blood freezing point of fish that inhabit

-1.7 °C deep water?
Answer: -0.8 °C
6.What was the first fish antifreeze discovered in Antarctic
nototheniid fishes?
Answer: Antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP).

7.How are fish antifreeze proteins categorized into types?

Answer: Type I, II, III, and IV AFPs.

8.What is the primary structural feature of antifreeze

glycoproteins (AFGPs)?
Answer: Expanded polyproline type II helical structure.

9.What percentage of AFGPs is comprised of carbohydrate side-

chains?
Answer: Up to 60%.

10.Why did Scholander and co-workers observe elevated non-

protein nitrogen levels in the serum of some fish?
Answer: Due to the presence of denaturation-resistant
proteinaceous AFGP.

11.Which fish inhabits deep (-1.7 °C) water and avoids freezing
by being hyposmotic to seawater?
Answer: Fishes in the northern Labrador .

12.Which fish produces high serum levels of glycerol in winter,

rendering it almost isosmotic with seawater to avoid freezing?
Answer: Rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax.

13.In which group of fishes was the first fish antifreeze, known
as antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP), discovered?
Answer: Antarctic nototheniid fishes.