Advances In Low Temperature Biology

Comprises studies of vitrification from both a biological and physical perspective, thermodynamics and modelling of intracellular ice formation, insect cold hardiness, cryostability of proteins, and adaptations in the photosynthetic activity of freezing-tolerant plants.

Low Temperature Biology of Foodstuffs describes the concept of low temperature biology and its application in the food industry. This book is divided into 23 chapters and begins with descriptions of several low temperature processes, such as nucleation, ice crystal growth, and freezing. The succeeding chapters deal with the protective mechanisms in frost-hardy plants, the physico-chemical changes in foods during freezing and storage, and the influence of cold storage, freezing, and thawing microbial and population of several foodstuffs. These topics are followed by discussions of the principles of freezing and low-temperature storage of fruit and vegetables. Other chapters explore the process of gelation, the freezing and frozen storage of fish muscle and meat. The final chapters look into the subjective evaluations of frozen food quality, including their physico-chemical properties. This book will prove useful to food scientists and manufacturers.

Advances in Low-Temperature Biology

First published in 1987, The Effects of Low Temperatures on Biological Systems takes a broad view of the interactions of low temperatures with biological conditions. The topics covered range from molecular effects to whole organism behaviour and include practical applications in medicine, agriculture and the food industry. This integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to cryobiology presents a wide spectrum of topics linked by theory and interpretation, provides a unified concept of the subject and may stimulate fruitful pathways for further thought and research. The expert contributors to this book were chosen by the editors to represent an integrated science of cryobiology.

Low temperature is a major environmental constraint impacting the geographic distribution and seasonal activity patterns of insects. Written for academic researchers in environmental physiology and entomology, this book explores the physiological and molecular mechanisms that enable insects to cope with a cold environment and places these findings into an evolutionary and ecological context. An introductory chapter provides a primer on insect cold tolerance and subsequent chapters in the first section discuss the organismal, cellular and molecular responses that allow insects to survive in the cold despite their, at best, limited ability to regulate their own body temperature. The second section, highlighting the evolutionary and macrophysiological responses to low temperature, is especially relevant for understanding the impact of global climate change on insect systems. A final section translates the knowledge gained from the rest of the book into practical applications including cryopreservation and the augmentation of pest management strategies.

Temperature is one facet in the mosaic of physical and biotic factors that describes the niche of an animal. Ofthe physical factors it is ecologically the most important. for it is a factor that is all-pervasive and one that. in most environments. lacks spatial or temporal constancy. Evolution has produced a wide variety of adaptive strategies and tactics to exploit or deal with this variable environmental factor. The ease with which temperature can be measured. and controlled experimentally. together with its widespread influence on the affairs of animals. has understandably led to a large. dispersed literature. In spite of this no recent book provides a comprehensive treatment of the biology of animals in relation to temperature. Our intention in writing this book was to fill that gap. We hope we have provided a modern statement with a critical synthesis of this diverse field. which will be suitable and stimulating for both advanced undergraduate and post graduate students of biology. This book is emphatically not intended as a monographical review. as thermal biology is such a diverse. developed discipline that it could not be encompassed within the confines of a book of this size.