Irregular mitosis and meiosis of Vicia faba L. after contamination with 131I

Abstract

In order to study the impact of radioactive substances on the cell cycle of Vicia faba L., which can be cultivated as food crop, experimental contamination was carried out with 131I radioactive rain drops applied at 5 groups of plants in flowering phase. А detailed analysis was done of both karyokinesis during the cell cycle and pollen grains. The results are presented as MI (mitotic index and frequency of aberrations in the M1 generation) and as an original micrographs. There are indications that in terms of long irradiation, the disintegration of ¹³¹I induced changes during mitosis and meiosis which depend on the absorbed dose, directly and indirectly influence the further growth and development of the treated crop. There have been detected different chromosome defects: chromosome breaks and structural rearrangements that occured in most of the chromosomes, adherence of the full complement of chromosomes, terminal connections and various interchromosomal links that contributed to single or multiple anaphase and telophase bridges which in some cases persist through the end of the cell cycle. There was high frequency of aberrant changes in meiotic karyokinesis I and II that are common in all of the treated groups, with few exceptions when dose-effect dependence was not determined. These irregularities resulted in defects in the construction of the pollen grains.