This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 135/1/357    most recent pp.104.040477v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Plant Physiol. Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (9) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kovalchuk, I. Articles by Kovalchuk, O. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kovalchuk, I. Articles by Kovalchuk, O. Agricola Articles by Kovalchuk, I. Articles by Kovalchuk, O.

ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS AND ADAPTATION

Molecular Aspects of Plant Adaptation to Life in the Chernobyl Zone^1,[w]

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1K 3M4 (I.K., O.K.); Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117809 Moscow, Russia (V.A.); and Division of Biochemical Toxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, Arkansas 72079 (I.P.)

With each passing year since the Chernobyl accident of 1986, more questions arise about the potential for organisms to adapt to radiation exposure. Often this is thought to be attributed to somatic and germline mutation rates in various organisms. We analyzed the adaptability of native Arabidopsis plants collected from areas with different levels of contamination around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from 1986 to 1992. Notably, progeny of Chernobyl plants resisted higher concentrations of the mutagens Rose Bengal and methyl methane sulfonate. We analyzed the possible molecular mechanisms of their resistance to mutagens and found a more than 10-fold lower frequency of extrachromosomal homologous recombination, significant differences in the expression of radical scavenging (CAT1 and FSD3) and DNA-repair (RAD1 and RAD51-like) genes upon exposure to mutagens (Rose Bengal and x-rays), and a higher level of global genome methylation. This data suggests that adaptation to ionizing radiation is a complex process involving epigenetic regulation of gene expression and genome stabilization that improves plants' resistance to environmental mutagens.

^[w] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.104.040477.

^* Corresponding author; e-mail olga.kovalchuk{at}uleth.ca; fax 1 403 329 2242.

Received February 4, 2004; returned for revision March 8, 2004; accepted March 9, 2004.

Related articles in Plant Physiol.:

Peter V. Minorsky
Plant Physiol. 2004 135: 1-2. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. I. Boubriak, D. M. Grodzinsky, V. P. Polischuk, V. D. Naumenko, N. P. Gushcha, A. N. Micheev, S. J. McCready, and D. J. Osborne Adaptation and Impairment of DNA Repair Function in Pollen of Betula verrucosa and Seeds of Oenothera biennis from Differently Radionuclide-contaminated Sites of Chernobyl Ann. Bot., January 1, 2008; 101(2): 267 - 276. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]