A number of structurally diverse classes of "antifreeze" proteins that allow fish to survive in sub-zero ice-laden waters have been isolated from the blood plasma of cold water teleosts. However, despite receiving a great deal of attention, the one or more mechanisms through which these proteins act are not fully understood. In this report we have synthesized a type I antifreeze polypeptide (AFP) from the shorthorn sculpin Myoxocephalus scorpius using recombinant methods. Construction of a synthetic gene with optimized codon usage and expression as a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein followed by purification yielded milligram amounts of polypeptide with two extra residues appended to the N terminus. Circular dichroism and NMR experiments, including residual dipolar coupling measurements on a 15 N-labeled recombinant polypeptide, show that the polypeptides are ␣-helical with the first four residues being more flexible than the remainder of the sequence. Both the recombinant and synthetic polypeptides modify ice growth, forming facetted crystals just below the freezing point, but display negligible thermal hysteresis. Acetylation of Lys-10, Lys-20, and Lys-21 as well as the N terminus of the recombinant polypeptide gave a derivative that displays both thermal hysteresis (0.4°C at 15 mg/ml) and ice crystal faceting. These results confirm that the N terminus of wild-type polypeptide is functionally important and support our previously proposed mechanism for all type I proteins, in which the hydrophobic face is oriented toward the ice at the ice/water interface.The type I AFPs 1 found in the blood of cold water teleosts (1-3) have attracted significant interest, due to the potential applications of such compounds in biotechnology and medicine (4 -9). These compounds are alanine-rich ␣-helical proteins of 33-47 residues in length (for reviews see Refs. 10 -13). Although 14 type I proteins have been identified in nature (summarized in Ref. 12), almost all studies to date have centered on HPLC6, the 37-residue protein from the winter flounder (see Table I below) (14). This protein is characterized as an AFP, because it modifies both the rate and shape of ice crystal growth and displays thermal hysteresis, i.e. a positive difference between the ice growth temperature and the equilibrium melting temperature of ice.During the last decade, significant progress has been made in elucidating the structural features of HPLC6 that are required to give antifreeze activity. Structure-activity studies have identified the importance of the Thr residues at positions 2, 13, 24, and 35 plus surrounding residues, for ice growth inhibition activity. Although the Thr residues were assumed to be involved in hydrogen-bonding interactions with ice for many years (15-19), more recent mutations have identified the hydrophobicity provided by the ␥-methyl group of Thr as a key factor related to the ability to inhibit ice growth (20 -24). Hydrogen bonding and other roles for the surrounding residues have also been considered (24 -29). Howe...