title: Deletion-pattern analysis of alpha-particle and X-ray induced mutations at the HPRT locus of V79 Chinese hamster cells.
abstract: To investigate the mutagenic mechanisms of low-energy alpha particles V79 Chinese hamster cells were irradiated with 241Am-alpha particles (mean LET of 112 keV/micron). Parallel experiments were performed using 300 kV X-rays. Cell inactivation and mutation induction cross sections were measured. At approximately 20%--survival level, DNA deletions were analysed at the HPRT locus by multiplex-PCR-analysis of all nine exons of 47 alpha-irradiated and 36 background mutants. 92 HPRT- mutants isolated after 300 kV-X-irradiation were analysed similarly for comparison, along with 15 corresponding background mutants. The resulting mutant deletion-pattern distributions were corrected for background mutations. alpha Particles induced a larger fraction of deletions than X-rays. Furthermore, non-contiguous partial deletions were present among the alpha-induced mutants, a type not found after X-irradiation.
authors.affiliation: Strahlenzentrum der Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kiefer
mesh_terms: D000512:Alpha Particles; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000528:radiation effects; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004249:DNA Damage; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005091:Exons; D007041:Hypoxanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D007041:Hypoxanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase