Cold tolerance of the Antarctic nematodes Plectus murrayi and Scottnema lindsayae

Abstract

The cold tolerance of the Antarctic nematodes Scottnema lindsayae and Plectus murrayi was determined using material freshly isolated from the field. Both species could survive low temperatures but the survival of S. lindsayae was greater than that of P. murrayi. Field soil temperatures in late spring—early summer indicated a minimum temperature of −19.5 °C and a maximum cooling rate of 0.71 °C min⁻¹. In P. murrayi grown in culture, there was no significant effect of acclimation, nor of the two culture media used, on survival after freezing but survival was greater if freezing was seeded at –1 °C than at lower temperatures. The freezing survival ability of P. murrayi is much less than that of Panagrolaimus davidi CB1, another Antarctic nematode. Cryomicroscopy indicates that P. murrayi can survive low temperatures by either cryoprotective dehydration or freezing tolerance, but that freezing tolerance is the dominant strategy. Measurable thermal hysteresis was detected only in highly concentrated extracts of the nematodes, indicating the presence of an antifreeze protein, but at the concentrations likely to be found in vivo, the major function of the ice active protein involved is probably recrystallization inhibition.