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English
Alternative forms
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)
- 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.