Abstract
The exponential increase of electromagnetic field radiations (EMF-r) in the natural environment has raked up the controversies regarding their biological effects. Concern regarding the putative capacity of EMF-r to affect living beings has been growing due to the ongoing elevation in the use of high frequency EMF-r in communication systems, e.g. Mobile phones. In the present study, we tried to examine the cyto- and genotoxic potential of mobile phone EMF-r at 2350MHz using onions (Allium cepa L.). Fresh adventitious onion roots were exposed to continuous EMF-r at 2350MHz for different time periods (1h, 2h and 4h). The evaluation of cytotoxicity was done in terms of mitotic index (MI), phase index and chromosomal aberrations. Genotoxicity was investigated employing comet assay in terms of changes in % HDNA (head DNA) and % TDNA (tail DNA), TM (tail moment) and OTM (olive tail moment). Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and mean values were separated using post hoc Tukey's test. The results manifested a significant increase of MI and chromosomal aberrations (%) upon 4h, and ≥ 2h of exposure, respectively, as compared to the control. No specific changes in phase index in response to EMF-r exposure were observed. The % HDNA and % TDNA values exhibited significant changes in contrast to that of control upon 2h and 4h of exposure, respectively. However, TM and OTM did not change significantly. Our results infer that continuous exposures of radiofrequency EMF-r (2350MHz) for long durations have a potential of inciting cyto- and genotoxic effects in onion root meristems.
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