Influence of acute irradiation on induction of chromosome aberrations in cultured cells of the fish Ameca splendens

There is very little published information on the genetic and cytogenetic responses of fish to radiation. Since a large proportion of the low-level waste arising from the nuclear power industry is discharged to aquatic environments, this constitutes a significant deficiency in our knowledge. While it is not expected that fish populations are seriously at risk, confirmatory evidence would be useful and would also provide a basis for generalizations from the much greater body of information available for mammalian systems. A primary cell culture has been obtained from pooled embryonic tissue of the small tropical fish Ameca splendens. This material has two advantages from the point of view of cytogenetic studies: the diploid chromosome complement is 26, and the chromosomes are all fairly large and most have a well defined centromere. The spectrum of aberrations found in these cells after irradiation with 60Co γ rays is similar to that found in irradiated mammalian cells in culture, and an acute dose-response curve has been obtained. (author)