ice-minus
ice-minus noun: a genetically modified bacterium created from Pseudomona syringae that inhibits the formation of ice crystals, thereby making some crops more frost tolerant.
Noun
ice-minus (uncountable)
- A genetically modified bacterium created from Pseudomona syringae that inhibits the formation of ice crystals, thereby making some crops more frost tolerant.
- 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.1985 November 14, Christopher Joyce, “Strawberry field will test man-made bacterium”, in New Scientist, volume 108, number 1482, page 18
- 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.1997, Paul B. Thompson, Paul L. Thompson, Julie Eckinger, Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective, page 106
Forms of ice-minus
| alternative form | ice minus |
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Origin of ice-minus
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.
Questions about ice-minus
- What does ice-minus mean?
- Ice-minus means a genetically modified bacterium created from Pseudomona syringae that inhibits the formation of ice crystals, thereby making some crops more frost tolerant.
- What part of speech is ice-minus?
- Ice-minus is a noun.
Words near ice-minus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ice-minus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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