Phytomonitoring of the Genotoxicity of Environmental Pollutants: An Application to Armenian Nuclear Power Plant

Phytomonitoring of the Genotoxicity of Environmental Pollutants: An Application to Armenian Nuclear Power Plant

Today the biosafety evaluation, a common problem of vital importance, is basedon internationally proved test-systems, standards and techniques. The paradigm of biosafetyincludes multidisciplinary approach, a combination of physical, chemical and biological tests tomonitor the environmental level of pollutants and needs to be improved by modern approaches. The genetic risk of environmental pollutions has long been studied by many researchers. In thisstudy, used was the known sensitive plant test-system, clones of plant Tradescantia (spiderwort)able to detect gene mutations (frequency of mutational events and formation of micronuclei) incombination with chemical and, in some instances, with radiological measurements. In addition,male gametophyte generation of fruit trees was applied as bioindicators of genotoxicity. Theobtained results did not show any significant increase along with wind direction. As for the malegametophyte assay, the fertility of the investigated fruit-trees near to NPP did not significantlydiffer from that of the control point. The influence of the NPP on the male generative system of theinvestigated taxa of fruit trees for the investigated year was not revealed. The system describedneeds to be expanded by species of interest (human) as there is a difficulty to transfer the revealeddose correlations to humans. The development of this idea includes various levels: population(epidemiological studies), individual, cellular, molecular (DNA), etc.

Today the biosafety evaluation, a common problem of vital importance, is basedon internationally proved test-systems, standards and techniques. The paradigm of biosafetyincludes multidisciplinary approach, a combination of physical, chemical and biological tests tomonitor the environmental level of pollutants and needs to be improved by modern approaches. The genetic risk of environmental pollutions has long been studied by many researchers. In thisstudy, used was the known sensitive plant test-system, clones of plant Tradescantia (spiderwort)able to detect gene mutations (frequency of mutational events and formation of micronuclei) incombination with chemical and, in some instances, with radiological measurements. In addition,male gametophyte generation of fruit trees was applied as bioindicators of genotoxicity. Theobtained results did not show any significant increase along with wind direction. As for the malegametophyte assay, the fertility of the investigated fruit-trees near to NPP did not significantlydiffer from that of the control point. The influence of the NPP on the male generative system of theinvestigated taxa of fruit trees for the investigated year was not revealed. The system describedneeds to be expanded by species of interest (human) as there is a difficulty to transfer the revealeddose correlations to humans. The development of this idea includes various levels: population(epidemiological studies), individual, cellular, molecular (DNA), etc.