Artículos de revistas
Fragmentation of extracellular DNA by long-term exposure to radiation from uranium in aquatic environments
Fecha
2012Registro en:
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING, CAMBRIDGE, v. 14, n. 8, supl. 1, Part 2, pp. 2108-2113, AUG, 2012
1464-0325
10.1039/c2em30196b
Autor
Arruda Neto, Joao Dias de Toledo
Nieto-González, Luis
Righi, Henriette
Cotta, Mônica Alonso
Carrer, Helaine
Rodrigues, Tulio Eduardo
Genofre Netto, Godofredo da Camara
Institución
Resumen
Persistent harmful scenarios associated with disposal of radioactive waste, high-background radiation areas and severe nuclear accidents are of great concern regarding consequences to both human health and the environment. Of particular concern is the extracellular DNA in aquatic environments contaminated by radiological substances. Strand breaks induced by radiation promote decrease in the transformation efficiency for extracellular DNA. The focus of this study is the quantification of DNA damage following long-term exposure (over one year) to low doses of natural uranium (an alpha particle emitter) to simulate natural conditions, since nothing is known about alpha radiation induced damage to extracellular DNA. A high-resolution Atomic Force Microscope was used to evaluate DNA fragments. Double-stranded plasmid pBS as a model for extracellular DNA was exposed to different amounts of natural uranium. It was demonstrated that low concentrations of U in water (50 to 150 ppm) produce appreciable numbers of double strand breaks, scaling with the square of the average doses. The importance of these findings for environment monitoring of radiological pollution is addressed.