nuclear legacy. nuclear fallout DNA mutations can be passed from one generation to another.
CAMBRIDGE, UK - For survivors of the atomic bombs on Japan fell at the end of the Second World War, burns and disfiguring diseases radiation-induced were too real and scary. Now researchers have a strong new evidence of a more insidious effect in others blighted by nuclear weapons :. Unexplained DNA mutations atomic tests in Kazakhstan in the early days of the Cold War
As indicated in Science , Yuri Dubrova and colleagues at the University of Leicester, UK the blood collected from three generations of 40 families in the district Beskaragai Kazakhstan, a desert region particularly affected by four surface atomic tests between 1949 and 1956. the researchers examined DNA minisatellite subjects - short repetitive sequences pepper genome. In each subject they examined eight minisatellite DNA regions that are prone to mutations. The mutation rate naturally rich in this DNA enables researchers to detect statistically significant increases in mutation rates in small populations.
When the data returned, "I could not believe my eyes," says Dubrova. As compared to control families in a non-irradiated part of Kazakhstan, people exposed to radioactive fallout had a rate of transfer about 80% higher, and their children showed an average increase of 50% over Sonder, Dubrova's group found an effect related to the apparent dose in children. - proof that the radiation, not a another environmental factor, induced mutations
These findings challenge the conventional view that the radiation inflicts his punishment. DNA only by direct corruption of nucleic acids, said Dudley Goodhead, director of Genome stability Unit . radiation Medical Research Council UK and Harwell Goodhead indicates that the mutation rate found in Kazakhstan is "too large magnitudes" to be counted by direct damage to the DNA of the germ line - DNA that is passed from parent to child. But exactly how long-term exposure to low-dose radiation leads to a high rate of mutation is unknown.
What these changes mean for germline health is a mystery, said Bryn Bridges of Cell Mutation Unit Medical Research Council in Brighton, UK. But evidence is mounting that Minisatellites affect gene transcription and hiking the risk of contracting certain diseases. Screening for these mutations may offer a new tool for radiation exposure monitoring, says William Morgan, director of the Research Laboratory of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Related Sites
homepage of Dubrova
Information on nuclear testing in Kazakhstan Development Gateway Kazakhstan
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