Metabolomic fingerprint of cryo-stress in a freeze tolerant insect

• Main Authors: Hawes, T.C., Hines, A., Viant, M.R, Bale, J.S., Worland, M. Roger, Convey, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cryo Letters 2008
• Subjects: Biology and Microbiology; Zoology; Ecology and Environment; Arctic
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11499/

This study employed H-1 NMR spectroscopy to assay the metabolome of the high Arctic freeze-tolerant dipteran larvae, Heleomyza borealis, after recovery from exposure to a range of sub-zero temperature treatments. Our data demonstrate the resilience of freeze tolerance in individuals of this permanently freeze-tolerant species that were acclimated to summer temperatures (5 degrees C): recovery of homeostasis after 48h was not significantly disturbed by 2h exposures to -3, -12, or -20 degrees C. Evidence of homeostatic perturbation to cryo-stress - both in terms of changes in specific metabolite concentrations as well as systemic changes in metabolism determined using multivariate pattern recognition techniques - was expressed almost entirely at a temperature coincident with the significant onset of mortality (-25 degrees C) and considerably below the minimum winter temperatures of its over-wintering habitat (c.-12 degrees C).