Articles | Volume 21, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3201-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3201-2024
Research article
 | 
12 Jul 2024
Research article |  | 12 Jul 2024

High interspecific variability in ice nucleation activity suggests pollen ice nucleators are incidental

Nina L. H. Kinney, Charles A. Hepburn, Matthew I. Gibson, Daniel Ballesteros, and Thomas F. Whale

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Cited articles

Ambroise, V., Legay, S., Guerriero, G., Hausman, J. F., Cuypers, A., and Sergeant, K.: The Roots of Plant Frost Hardiness and Tolerance, Plant Cell Physiol., 61, 3–20, https://doi.org/10.1093/PCP/PCZ196, 2020. 
Augustin, S., Wex, H., Niedermeier, D., Pummer, B., Grothe, H., Hartmann, S., Tomsche, L., Clauss, T., Voigtländer, J., Ignatius, K., and Stratmann, F.: Immersion freezing of birch pollen washing water, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10989–11003, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10989-2013, 2013. 
Bell, C. D., Soltis, D. E., and Soltis, P. S.: The age and diversification of the angiosperms re-revisited, Am. J. Bot., 97, 1296–1303, https://doi.org/10.3732/AJB.0900346, 2010. 
Bessey, C. E.: Remarkable fall of pine pollen, Am. Nat., 17, 658–658, https://doi.org/10.1086/273405, 1883. 
Brush, R. A., Griffith, M., and Mlynarz, A.: Characterization and Quantification of lntrinsic Ice Nucleators in Winter Rye (Secale cereale) Leaves', Plant Physiol., 104, 725–735, 1994. 
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Short summary
Molecules released from plant pollen induce the formation of ice from supercooled water at temperatures warm enough to suggest an underlying function for this activity. In this study we show that ice nucleators are ubiquitous in pollen. We suggest the molecules responsible fulfil some unrelated biological function and nucleate ice incidentally. The ubiquity of ice-nucleating molecules in pollen and particularly active examples reveal a greater potential for pollen to impact weather and climate.
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