CHROMOSOME REARRANGEMENTS AFTER LOW X-RAY DOSES GIVEN TO SPERMATOGONIA OF MICE

Abstract

Male mice from the BALB/c strain were given whole-body irradiation at doses of 25, 50, 75 and 100 R of X-rays. Seventy days after irradiation the mice were killed, the testes removed and meiotic preparations were made using an air-drying method. Translocation configurations involving four chromosomes were the most frequent type recorded. The percentage of translocations increased regularly from 0.42 after 25 R to 1.96 after 100 R. The relationship between the X-ray dose and the rate of abnormal cells appears to be linear with a regression coefficient of b = 0.018960.