Bioprecipitation is the concept of rain-making bacteria and was proposed by David Sands from Montana State University in the 1970s.
The ice-minus variant of P. syringae is a mutant, lacking the gene responsible for ice-nucleating surface protein production.
Should the ice-minus strain win out, the ice nucleate provided by P. syringae would no longer be present, lowering the level of frost development on plant surfaces at normal water freezing temperature (0°C).
The bacteria are found in snow, soils and seedlings in locations, such as, Antarctica, the Yukon Territory of Canada and the French Alps, according to Brent Christner, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University.
[7] Many ski resorts use a commercially available freeze-dried preparation of ice-nucleating proteins derived from the bacterium species Pseudomonas syringae to make snow in a snowgun.