Melanized fungi as discriminators for nuclear fallout radionuclides.
Abstract
The objective of this research is to develop radiation adaptive fungi to discriminate nuclear fallout radionuclides. We hypothesize that fungi adapted to long term exposure to radionuclides evolve radiotropism properties and are more responsive to the low dose of ionizing radiation and more discriminative of radionuclides by tuning genome structure, gene expression, epigenetic and metabolic activity. We will generate radiation adaptive fungal strains in laboratory and characterize their phenotypes in response to nuclear fallout radionuclides 137Cesium (gamma emitter), 90Strontium (beta emitter), 210Polonium (alpha emitter) and 225Actinium (mixed alpha-, beta- and gamma-emitter representing other fallout relevant actinides such as Uranium and Plutonium radionuclides). We will identify "radiotropic" mutations, genes, microRNAs and metabolites that are stimulated by the low dose of radiation and will characterize their sensitivity and specificity to different radionuclides. Those identified genes, microRNAs and metabolites have potential to serve as the radionuclide discrimination biomarkers
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2018
- Source ID
- HDTRA11710020
Entities
People
- Ekaterina Dadachova
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- University of Saskatchewan