Interaction of L-proline with water and ice: Implications for Litopenaeus Vannamei Cryoprotection during temperature fluctuation

Temperature fluctuations can negatively affect the quality of frozen shrimp. Research on novel cryoprotectants to replace traditional agents (phosphate, etc.) has become a hotspot. Our results indicated that L-Proline could reduce thawing losses, delay texture deterioration and improve the functional properties of myofibrillar proteins of shrimp. Thawing loss in the proline group (3.2 %) was significantly lower than that in the control (5.4 %) after 3 freeze-thaw cycles ( p  < 0.05). Compared to Na 4 P 2 O 7 , proline had better permeability and greater ability to inhibit ice crystal growth and volume expansion. Through molecular simulations, we found that proline might inhibit ice crystal formation by forming glassy states with water. Hydrogen bonding between proline and water/ice played a major role, and only a small amount of proline was required to significantly reduce the ice crystal growth rate from 0.16 m/s to 0.06 m/s. Briefly, proline exhibited potential as a cryoprotectant for shrimp in temperature fluctuations.