Ornithogalum virens as a plant assay for beta and gamma radiation effects

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the monocotyledonous angiosperm, Ornithogalum virens (Quintanilha and Cabral, 1947), could be used in such a biological assay system. After exposing O. virens plants to acute (/sup 60/Co) and chronic (/sup 137/Cs) gamma radiation and internal beta radiation (/sup 32/P), lethality (LD/sub 50/, LD/sub 100/), growth inhibition, and chromosome aberrations were investigated. The LD/sub 50/ and LD/sub 100/ for acute gamma radiation were estimated to be between 0.91 to 1.8 krad and less than 3.6 krad, respectively. Though growth inhibition and abnormal growth were observed in the acute and chronic gamma radiation studies, the changes in the growth of the plants were so variable that these parameters were found to be unreliable measures of radiation effects. Chromosome aberrations were a more reliable measure of radiation damage because linear relationships between total aberrations and dose were found for both gamma and beta radiation.