The Japanese Journal of Genetics
Online ISSN : 1880-5787
Print ISSN : 0021-504X
ISSN-L : 0021-504X
REGULAR PAPERS
Somatic mutation frequencies in the stamen hairs of Tradescantia grown in soil samples from the Bikini Island
Sadao ICHIKAWAChizu ISHII
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1991 Volume 66 Issue 1 Pages 27-40

Details
Abstract

Somatic pink mutation frequencies in the stamen hairs of Tradescantia BNL 02 clone grown for 76 days in two soil samples taken from the Bikini Island (where a hydrogen bomb explosion test had been conducted in 1954) were investigated. A significantly high mutation frequency (2.58±0.17 pink mutant events per 103 hairs or 1.34±0.09 pink mutant events per 104 hair-cell divisions) was observed for the plant grown in one of the two Bikini soil samples, as compared to the control plants (1.70±0.14 or 0.88±0.07, respectively) grown in the field soil of Saitama University. The soil sample which caused the significant increase in mutation frequency contained 6,880±330 mBq/g 137Cs, 62.5±4.4 mBq/g 60Co, and some other nuclides; a 150 μR/hr exposure rate being measured on the surface of the soil sample. The effective cumulative external exposures measured for the inflorescences of the plant grown in this soil sample averaged at most 60.8 mR, being too small to explain the significant elevation in mutation frequency observed. On the other hand, internal exposure due to uptake of radioactive nuclides was estimated to be 125 mrad (1.25 mGy) as an accumulated effective dose, mainly based on a gamma-spectrometrical analysis. However, it seemed highly likely that this value of internal exposure was a considerable underestimate, and the internal exposure was considered to be more significant than the external exposure.

Content from these authors
© 1991 by The Genetics Society of Japan
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top