Effects of low-dose tritium labeled thymidine and uridine on the induction of somatic mutations in tradescantia

Abstract

The mutagenic effects of the labeled position of tritium labeled thymidine and uridine were studied in stamen hairs of Tradescantia clone BNL-02. Each tritium labeled compound was applied to the center of the inflorescence with 0, 5, 10, 50 and 100 nCi per inflorescence. The frequency of pink mutations was increased by increasing doses of both types of the compounds but the slopes of the dose response curves were different. Possible molecular mechanisms involved in the effect of tritium labeled thymidine and uridine on the induction of mutations are discussed.