[Advances in fish antifreeze protein research].

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) can highly effectively protect cells and embryos from damages in freezing process by lowering the freezing points of their cytoplasmic matrix and body fluids in a noncolligative manner. Based on their origins and properties, AFPs have been classified into four types, i.e. type I, II, III and IV. Each of them possesses rather distinct characteristics both in structure and composition, although all of them have ability of lowering freezing points of fluids. AFPs' genes have been characterized as members of a multigene family and the levels of their mRNA synthesis vary significantly with seasons. Adsorption-inhibition operating at the ice surface is nowadays a hypothesis widely used to interpret the molecular mechanisms of noncolligative lowering of the freezing point, but the details of the mechanism on how the different types of AFP are adsorbed onto ice remain uncertain. Progresses in research on structures, amino acid compositions, genes, antifreeze mechanisms of the 4 distinct types of AFPs, and the application of the AFPs in cryopreservation of cells and embryos are reviewed here.