Fungi could hold the key to the controversial science of weather manipulation, according to University of Virginia research that has isolated a fungal protein that promotes ice formation at high subzero temperatures.
Published in Science Advances, the new research could have major implications for cloud seeding, food safety, and even climate modeling. Intriguingly, their research also uncovered that the fungal protein results from a stolen gene, mysteriously transferred across species that are typically incompatible.
Cloud Seeding Weather Manipulation
Cloud seeding is a controversial weather modification technique in which humans artificially induce precipitation. The central element is a type of particle called an ice nucleator, which encourages water droplets to freeze into ice crystals. As more water molecules come into contact with the frozen ice, they adhere and freeze as well. Similar to rolling a snowball, this process eventually creates ice crystals large and heavy enough to fall from clouds toward the ground.
During their descent, however, the ice crystals often melt. By the time they reach the ground, they have typically become liquid rain. While this technique could theoretically bring relief to regions experiencing drought, the primary chemical used—silver iodide—has raised environmental and toxicity concerns. The fungal protein, by comparison, offers a potentially safer, non-toxic alternative.
A Stolen Gene
Perhaps most intriguingly, the gene encoding the ice-nucleating protein did not arise through mutation but appears to have been acquired from a bacterial species. At some point, possibly millions of years ago, the gene migrated from bacteria to a fungal ancestor in a process known as horizontal gene transfer.
“It is known that fungi can acquire genes from bacteria, but it’s not something that is common,” said co-author Boris Vinatzer. “So I never expected that this fungal gene had a bacterial origin.”
“Horizontal gene transfer is a ‘sneaky’ way for microbes to acquire genes that are useful for their survival without having to evolve them themselves,” Vinatzer explained to The Debrief. “It is a common process in bacteria whereby pathogenic bacteria that we treat with antibiotics acquire genes for antibiotic resistance from other bacteria so they can survive and thrive in the presence of antibiotics.”
According to Vinatzer, this form of gene transfer “is much less common between very different organisms, like in our case, where a fungus ‘stole’ a gene from a bacterium. What is most surprising to me is that this gene was maintained by the fungus that acquired it and that the fungus even improved upon it.”
“This means that in the environment in which this fungus lived at the time it acquired the bacterial gene, the ability to nucleate ice (the ability to make water freeze) must have conferred a huge advantage for its survival,” Vinatzer adds.
The fungal versions exhibit unique properties that distinguish them from their bacterial counterparts, including water solubility and the ability to function outside of living cells. These characteristics make the fungal proteins far more practical for applications such as weather modification.
A Safer Alternative For Weather Manipulation and More
The team says their discovery offers a significantly safer alternative for cloud seeding in regions facing drought.
“If we learn how to cheaply produce enough of this fungal protein, then we could put that into clouds and make cloud seeding much safer,” Vinatzer said.
The protein may also have applications in food storage. Here again, the fungal version’s unique properties offer advantages over bacterial alternatives. Because the fungus secretes the ice-nucleating protein, it can be isolated and added directly to frozen foods, whereas bacterial approaches would require introducing entire living cells to achieve similar effects.
“That’s a big advantage in food production because you have just this one well defined protein and you can get rid of everything else,” said Vinatzer. “There is the possibility to develop a safe, effective additive that helps in the preparation of frozen food.”
Beyond food, the team also envisions potential applications in cryopreservation, including preserving tissues, sperm, eggs, and embryos.
“Adding a fungal ice nucleator, which is a relatively small molecule, makes the water around the cell freeze much earlier before it gets very cold, to protect the delicate cell inside,” Vinatzer said. “You couldn’t do that with the bacteria because you would have to add entire bacterial cells.”
DNA Sequencing For Weather Manipulation
The new findings were made possible by recent advances in DNA sequencing and computational analysis. While researchers first identified ice-nucleating properties in fungi from the Mortierellaceae family in the 1990s, technology at the time could not isolate the gene responsible.
Although the research has clear implications for addressing drought, the team says it may also improve understanding of Earth’s climate systems.
The amount of solar radiation that either passes through clouds to the surface or reflects back into space is a critical factor in climate models. Changes in ice content can influence how clouds interact with incoming radiation.
“Now that we know this fungal molecule, it will become easier to find out how much of these kinds of molecules are in clouds,” Vinatzer said. “And in the long run, this research could contribute to developing better climate models.”
“Another more practical next step, which Dr. Meister shared with me, is to find ways to produce the fungal ice nucleation protein in large quantities so that we can study it better and we can test its use it in industrial processes, and possibly in cloud seeding,” Vinatzer said.
The researchers also plan to further investigate the evolutionary advantages the gene may have provided after its transfer, as well as how it continued to evolve over time.
The paper, “A Previously Unrecognized Class of Fungal Ice-Nucleating Proteins with Bacterial Ancestry,” appeared in Science Advances on March 11, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.