title: Resistance of Feather-Associated Bacteria to Intermediate Levels of Ionizing Radiation near Chernobyl.
abstract: Ionizing radiation has been shown to produce negative effects on organisms, although little is known about its ecological and evolutionary effects. As a study model, we isolated bacteria associated with feathers from barn swallows Hirundo rustica from three study areas around Chernobyl differing in background ionizing radiation levels and one control study site in Denmark. Each bacterial community was exposed to four different γ radiation doses ranging from 0.46 to 3.96 kGy to test whether chronic exposure to radiation had selected for resistant bacterial strains. Experimental radiation duration had an increasingly overall negative effect on the survival of all bacterial communities. After exposure to γ radiation, bacteria isolated from the site with intermediate background radiation levels survived better and produced more colonies than the bacterial communities from other study sites with higher or lower background radiation levels. Long-term effects of radiation in natural populations might be an important selective pressure on traits of bacteria that facilitate survival in certain environments. Our findings indicate the importance of further studies to understand the proximate mechanisms acting to buffer the negative effects of ionizing radiation in natural populations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Mario Xavier
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Ruiz-González
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Mănăştur street 3-5, RO-400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.|Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, D-10315 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Gábor Árpád
authors.initials: GÁ
authors.lastname: Czirják
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Microbiologie et de Génétique Moléculaires, Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Genevaux
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UMR 8079 CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 362, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Anders Pape
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, SC 29208, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy Alexander
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Mousseau
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heeb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000528:radiation effects*; D047852:Chernobyl Nuclear Accident; D003718:Denmark; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005241:Feathers / Q000382:microbiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D005260:Female; D005720:Gamma Rays; D008297:Male; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000528:radiation effects; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014455:Ukraine
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S