These data were generated in a comparative study of protein metabolism (protein synthesis, protein growth and protein degradation) in the Antarctic plunderfish, Harpagifer antarcticus and the Northern European blenny, Lipophrys pholis. The study carried out an examination of protein metabolism in these species at a range over overlapping temperatures covering the environmental range of the species. Protein synthesis was measured using the flooding dose methodology in animals held at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK. The experimental work was carried out by Andrew Bowgen and Keiron Fraser. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of ambient habitat temperature on protein metabolism in two ecologically similar, but phylogenetically distant fish species, including one that only inhabited polar latitudes.

Andrew Bowgen was funded by a NERC PhD studentship and the study was completed as part of the British Antarctic Survey, Biodiversity, Function, Limits and Adaptations from Molecules to Ecosystems (BIOFLAME) project, part of the NERC funded Biological Responses to Extreme Antarctic Conditions and Hyperextremes (BIOREACH) programme.