The ability to control extracellular ice formation during freezing is critical to the survival of freezing-tolerant plants. Antifreeze proteins, which are proteins that have the ability to retard ice crystal growth, were recently identified as the most abundant apoplastic proteins in cold-acclimated winter rye (Secale cereale 1.) leaves. In the experiments reported here, amino-terminal sequence comparisons, immuno-cross-reactions, and enzyme activity assays all indicated that these antifreeze proteins are similar to members of three classes of pathogenesis-related proteins, namely, endochitinases, endo-p-l,3-glucanases, and thaumatin-like proteins. Apoplastic endochitinases and endo-p-l,3-glucanases that were induced by pathogens in freezing-sensitive tobacco did not exhibit antifreeze activity. Our findings suggest that subtle structural differences may have evolved in the pathogenesis-related proteins that accumulate at cold temperatures in winter rye to confer upon these proteins the ability to bind to ice.

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We have synthesized a series of polyintercalating compounds, including the first known tetraintercalator, based on the 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic diimide chromophore. The chromophores are attached in a headto-tail arrangement by peptide linkers and are synthesized by standard solid phase peptide synthesis methods. We report evidence, based on UV-visible spectroscopy and viscometry, that the compounds are fully intercalated upon binding to double-stranded DNA. Using DNAse I footprinting experiments, the bisintercalator 2 was found to bind to DNA in a cooperative manner. The footprinting results as well as association and dissociation kinetics data reveal that the compounds exhibit a tremendous preference for GC over AT sequences. A mode of binding is proposed in which the compounds intercalate completely from the major groove, and not in a threading manner as may be suggested by their structures. A kinetic scheme is proposed that takes into account the observed cooperativity and fits the data for the dissociations of the polyintercalators from poly(dAdT), although a similar scheme could not adequately model their dissociations from poly(dGdC) or from calf thymus DNA.

No abstract