Evaluation of freshly irradiated wheat for dominant lethal mutations in Wistar rats.
Three independent, serially performed experiments involving acute and chronic feeding of freshly irradiated wheat (75 krad, gamma-irradiation) were carried out in Wistar rats. In the first experiment groups of 10 males were given wheat for 1 week; irradiated wheat was consumed by the animals within 24 h or irradiation. In the other two experiments feeding of males was continued for 6 (10 males per group) and 12 (13 males per group) weeks, respectively, and the irradiated wheat was fed within 7 days of irradiation. At the end of each treatment period each male was paired with 3 females for 7 days and sequentially at weekly intervals for 5 or 8 weeks. Females were killed and examined for live and dead implantations and corpora lutea. There were no differences between groups with regard to fertility nor was there any inter-group differences as regards pre- and post-implantation losses whether the rats were fed irradiated or non-irradiated wheat. This suggested that even feeding of freshly irradiated wheat does not induce any dominant lethal mutations in rats.
D000818:Animals; D003338:Corpus Luteum; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D005313:Fetal Death; D005514:Food Irradiation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005799:Genes, Dominant / Q000187:drug effects*; D005804:Genes, Lethal / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors; D014908:Triticum / Q000528:radiation effects*