Articles | Volume 22, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-103-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-103-2025
Research article
 | 
09 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 09 Jan 2025

Aggregation of ice-nucleating macromolecules from Betula pendula pollen determines ice nucleation efficiency

Florian Wieland, Nadine Bothen, Ralph Schwidetzky, Teresa M. Seifried, Paul Bieber, Ulrich Pöschl, Konrad Meister, Mischa Bonn, Janine Fröhlich-Nowoisky, and Hinrich Grothe

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Cited articles

Adar, C., Sirotinskaya, V., Bar Dolev, M., Friehmann, T., and Braslavsky, I.: Falling water ice affinity purification of ice-binding proteins, Sci. Rep., 8, 11046, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29312-x, 2018. 
Alsante, A. N., Thornton, D. C. O., and Brooks, S. D.: Effect of Aggregation and Molecular Size on the Ice Nucleation Efficiency of Proteins, Environ. Sci. Technol., 58, 4594–4605, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c06835, 2024. 
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. 
Bar Dolev, M., Braslavsky, I., and Davies, P. L.: Ice-binding proteins and their function, Annu. Rev. Biochem., 85, 515–542, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biochem-060815-014546, 2016. 
Bieber, P. and Borduas-Dedekind, N.: High-speed cryo-microscopy reveals that ice-nucleating proteins of Pseudomonas syringae trigger freezing at hydrophobic interfaces, Sci. Adv., 10, eadn6606, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn6606, 2024. 
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Short summary
Betula pendula is a widespread birch tree species containing ice nucleation agents that can trigger the freezing of cloud droplets and thereby alter the evolution of clouds. Our study identifies three distinct ice-nucleating macromolecule (INM) aggregates of varying size that can nucleate ice at temperatures up to –5.4°C. Our findings suggest that these vegetation-derived particles may influence atmospheric processes, weather, and climate more strongly than previously thought.
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