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- Title
Integration of genotoxicity and population genetic analyses in kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) exposed to radionuclide contamination at the Nevada Test Site, USA
- Authors
Bickham, John W.; Lamb, Trip; Medica, Philip A.; Lyne, T. Barrett; Theodorakis, Christopher W.
- Abstract
We examined effects of radionuclide exposure at two atomic blast sites on kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) at the Nevada Test Site, Nevada, USA, using genotoxicity and population genetic analyses. We assessed chromosome damage by micronucleus and flow cytometric assays andgenetic variation by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses. The RAPD analysis showed no population structure, but mtDNA exhibited differentiation among and within populations. Genotoxicity effects were not observed when all individuals were analyzed. However, individuals with mtDNA haplotypes unique to the contaminated sites had greater chromosomal damage than contaminated-site individuals with haplotypes shared with reference sites. When interpopulation comparisons used individuals with unique haplotypes, one contaminated site had greater levels of chromosome damage than one or both of the reference sites. We hypothesize that shared-haplotype individuals are potential migrants and that unique-haplotype individuals are potential long-term residents. A parsimony approach wasused to estimate the minimum number of migration events necessary toexplain the haplotype distributions on a phylogenetic tree. The observed predominance of migration events into the contaminated sites supported our migration hypothesis. We conclude the atomic blast sites are ecological sinks and that immigration masks the genotoxic effects of radiation on the resident populations.
- Subjects
POPULATION genetics; POLLUTION; NUCLEAR weapons; RADIATION exposure
- Publication
Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, 2001, Vol 20, Issue 2, p317
- ISSN
0730-7268
- Publication type
Article