ice-minus

English

Alternative forms

• ice minus

Etymology

Coined by Stephen Lindlow because it lacks the gene he calls "ice" that creates a protein which provides a regular surface for the formation of ice.

Noun

ice-minus (uncountable)

1. A genetically modified bacterium created from Pseudomona syringae that inhibits the formation of ice crystals, thereby making some crops more frost tolerant.
   • 1985 November 14, Christopher Joyce, “Strawberry field will test man-made bacterium”, in New Scientist, volume 108, number 1482, page 18:

     Bees are know to carry the natural version of P. syringae after pollinating strawberry plants, but AGS points out that ice-minus poses no threat to other plants or insects.

   • 1997, Paul B. Thompson, Paul L. Thompson, Julie Eckinger, Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective, page 106:

     For ice-minus, the proposed mechanism was that engineered organisms would displace natural ones, and the hazard was a disruption of ecological processes in which ice formation is critical.

   • 2002, Stephen Nottingham, Genescapes: The Ecology of Genetic Engineering, page 19:

     In laboratory experiments, ice-minus conferred frost-tolerance on strawberries on to which it was sprayed.