Postradiation effect of the electric field --Ikhim, YG, Bliandur, OV, Lysikov, VN Sufficiently many works have been carried out to assess the influence of electric fields on the plant organism. But the specific action of this factor during the postradiation period has not attracted close attention. While studying the impact of the electric field in the radiation mutagenesis we have come across the expressions of the effects both stimulating repair systems and enhancing the radiation damage.

We have set an experiment involving the radiation of 7-day-old seedlings of the 19-3-3 maize line to study these phenomena. A dose of 6 Gy, which is sublethal for seedlings, was applied for a control effect. The radiation was accomplished through a hard g-irradiation using a PXM-g-20 unit. Following a 10 min radiation, the Petri dishes containing the seedlings were exposed 1, 5, and 10 min to a 2 kW electric field. Rootlets were fixed to estimate chromosome aberrations and the findings were compared with control, in which the seedlings were not exposed to postradiation treatment. The rootlets were fixed at different periods, immediately after the treatment (0 min), after 30 min and 90 min to assess the dynamic action of the repair systems.

The number of chromosome aberrations, %
 
Treatment
Fixation time
 
0 min
30 min
90 min
Control - 6Gy
48.36
48.09
48.62
1) 6Gy + 1 min EF
51.14
49.02
46.43
2) 6Gy + 5 min EF
62.70
63.97
65.29
3) 6Gy+10 min EF
71.08
71.54
71.85

The findings are summarized in the table. All the treatments increased the chromosome aberration with respect to the control.
 
 

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