[en] A symposium entitled Environmental Mutagenesis and Radiation Biology was held on September 27, 2016 to honor the memory of Dr. William F. Morgan who passed away unexpectedly on November 13, 2015. The speakers presented the latest reviews on homologous recombination repair, induced genetic instability, bystander effects, and risk estimate development. Their presentations are presented following the introduction.

No abstract available

[en] Synchronized G1 CHO cells with chromosomes of TB or TT constitution were irradiated with X-rays, short-wave UV and long-wave UV. The types and frequencies of chromosomal aberrations observed in the ensuing mitosis were studied. X-Rays induced predominantly chromosome types of aberration in chromosomes of TT constitution, whereas both chromosome- and chromatid-types of aberration were induced in cells with chromosomes of TB constitution. Short-wave UV induced only chromatid types of aberration in cells containing chromosomes of TT constitution, but both chromosome and chromatid types of aberration in cells with chromosomes of TB constitution. Long-wave UV induced chromosome and chromatid types of aberration in cells with chromosomes of TB constitution and no aberrations in cells containing chromosomes of TT constitution. Long-wave UV-irradiation of cells containing chromosomes of TB constitution increases the frequencies of SCEs. The relationship between chromosome constitution (TT or TB), the type of lesions induced by the 3 different agents employed, and the types chromosomal aberration induced are discussed. (orig.)

[en] 5 patients with inoperable bronchogenic carcinomas on a weekly therapy with a low dose of bleomycin (BL) plus irradiation with high-energy electrons, were analysed cytogenetically by cultivating peripheral lymphocytes taken immediately before the BL treatments and some hours before the irradiations. For the induction of dicentric chromosomes, linear dose-effect relationships were found: 3 of the patients responded with similar dose-effect relationships. The other 2 were different: they were not comparable with those 3 or with each other. These results were unexpected because all 5 patients received similar types of treatment. (orig.)

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] Two aspects of the relationship between Asymmetrical (A) and Symmetrical (S) radiation-induced chromosomal aberrations are considered in this paper. (1) Are A and S truly alternative modes of lesion interaction. Relative frequencies for chromatid-type and chromosome-type are examined, and new lymphocyte data using banding is used to look at this, and also for parallelism in chromosome participation of the two forms for various aberration categories. All the tests applied suggest that A and S are alternative interaction modes. (2) The long-term survival characteristics of A and S are discussed, and the differences in expected frequencies of derived S per surviving cell from chromosome-type and chromatid-types are stressed. Since many in vivo tissues have varying mixtures of potential chromatid and chromosome aberration-bearing target cells, ultimate cell survival and derived S frequencies may differ between tissues for the same absorbed dose. An Appendix gives Relative Corrected Lengths (RCL) for chromosomes of the human karyotype which should be used when testing the various exchange aberration categories for random chromosome participation. (orig.)

[en] It was obtained by investigating the mutagenesis of UV-irradiated herpes simplex virus after the irradiated virus was grown in human cells that possess normal repair capacity (normal) or lack excision repair (XPA) or post-replication repair (XP var). Evidence is presented which indicate that XPA cells express no host cell reactivation, while XP var cells express the normal level. Viral mutagenesis was measured as the fraction of the progeny of the surviving virus capable of plaque formation in the presence of iododeoxycytidine. The UV exposure needed to yield a given mutagenesis level for virus grown in XPA cells was much lower than that for virus grown in normal cells. However, when the mutation frequencies were compared at similar virus survival levels, the data from virus grown in normal cells and in XPA cells were indistinguishable. Mutagenesis in XP var cells increased as dose squared and was similar in magnitude to that in normal cells. In human cells excision repair has been clearly demonstrated to be important in host cell reactivation of UV-irradiated viruses. (orig./AJ)

[en] The effects of hydroxyurea on plaque formation by UV-irradiated and MNNG-treated adenovirus 5 were investigated. Hydroxyurea blocked the recovery of UV-irradiated viruses in all cases studied, but the effect was less when fibroblasts from a patient with xeroderma pigmentosum were used. This fact supports the notion that hydroxyurea blocks excision repair of UV-produced damage. The recovery of MNNG-treated viruses was not blocked by hydroxyurea when viruses were used to infect normal human fibroblasts, but was blocked if the cell strain used as viral host were deficient in repair of O⁶-methylguanine. To account for these data, we propose that hydroxyurea blocks repair in which DNA polymerases play a role, but does not block repair in which DNA polymerases are not required. (orig.)

[en] In order to gain an overall picture of the genetic effects of an increased level of background radiation it is necessary to study the results of protracted exposures to embryonic and immature germ-cell stages as well as to stages found in the mature organism. For this purpose, litters produced by female mice, kept in a 10 or 20 rad/day ⁶⁰Co γ-irradiation field, were kept in the same fields from conception until about 60 days later, having absorbed doses of 526 and 1078 rad respectively. Tests on exposed female offspring showed them to be sterile. 8 weeks after removal from the gamma field, mean testis masses of males in the 20 rad/day series were only half normal but those receiving 10 rad/day were little affected. Frequencies of translocations in spermatocytes at diakinesis/metaphase I were only slightly increased in the exposed series, differences not being significant. Estimated rates of translocation induction were around 5 x 10sup(-6) per rad, about one-third of those found after protracted γ-irradiation of stem-cell spermatogonia in the adult. Embryonic lethality in progeny of other similarly irradiated males (absorbed doses of 560 and 1040 rad), mated 2 months after removal from the radiation fields, was also increased slightly, but not significantly. Results are compared with others on the induction of chromosome aberrations and gene mutations, mainly by acute irradiation, in prenatal and neonatal male mice. It is concluded that early male germ-cell stages generally show a reduced genetic radiosensitivity after both acute and chronic exposures. (orig.)