Ice nucleation catalyzed by the photosynthesis enzyme RuBisCO and other abundant biomolecules Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractAtmospheric aerosol and the cloud droplets and ice crystals that grow on them remain major sources of uncertainty in global climate models. A subset of aerosol, ice nucleating particles, catalyze the freezing of water droplets at temperatures warmer than 38C. Here we show that RuBisCO, one of the most abundant proteins in plants and phytoplankton, is one of the most efficient known immersion ice nucleating particles with a mean freezing temperature of 7.90.3C. Further, we demonstrate RuBisCO is present in ambient continental aerosol where it can serve as an ice nucleating particle. Other biogenic molecules act as immersion ice nucleating particles, in the range of 19 to 26C. In addition, our results indicate heat denaturation is not a universal indicator of the proteinaceous origin of ice nucleating particles, suggesting current studies may fail to accurately quantify biological ice nucleating particle concentrations and their global importance.

published proceedings

  • COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT

altmetric score

  • 3.35

author list (cited authors)

  • Alsante, A. N., Thornton, D., & Brooks, S. D.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Alsante, Alyssa N||Thornton, Daniel CO||Brooks, Sarah D

publication date

  • February 2023