Researchers discover which organs in Antarctic fish produce antifreeze

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Christina Cheng an animal biologist at the University of Illinois poses with a photo of an Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) as it comes up a 3-foot hole drilled into the McMurdo Sound sea ice. The fish weighed in at about 70 pounds. Credit: ...
Christina Cheng, an animal biologist at the University of Illinois, poses with a photo of an Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) as it comes up a 3-foot hole drilled into the McMurdo Sound sea ice. The fish weighed in at about 70 pounds. Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

Thirty-five years ago Arthur DeVries of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign first documented antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) in Antarctic notothenioid fishes. This month three colleagues report they've solved the ensuing, long-running mystery of where these AFGPs, which allow the fish to survive in icy waters, are produced.


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