Lack of transgenerational effects of ionizing radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident
Meredith Yeager, Mitchell J. Machiela, Prachi Kothiyal, Michael Dean, Clara Bodelón, Shalabh Suman, Mingyi Wang, Lisa Mirabello, Chase W. Nelson, Weiyin Zhou, Cameron D. Palmer, Bari J. Ballew, Leandro M. Colli, Neal D. Freedman, Casey Dagnall, Amy Hutchinson, Vibha Vij, Yosi E. Maruvka, Maureen Hatch, Iryna Illienko, Yuri Belayev, Nori Nakamura, V. Chumak, Elena Bakhanova, David Belyi, Victor Kryuchkov, Ivan Golovanov, Natalia Gudzenko, Elizabeth K. Cahoon, Paul S. Albert, Vladimir Drozdovitch, Mark P. Little, Kiyóhiko Mabuchi, Chip Stewart, Gad Getz, D. Bаzyка, Amy Berrington de González, Stephen J. Chanock
Abstract
Genomics of radiation-induced damage The potential adverse effects of exposures to radioactivity from nuclear accidents can include acute consequences such as radiation sickness, as well as long-term sequelae such as increased risk of cancer. There have been a few studies examining transgenerational risks of radiation exposure but the results have been inconclusive. Morton et al. analyzed papillary thyroid tumors, normal thyroid tissue, and blood from hundreds of survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and compared them against those of unexposed patients. The findings offer insight into the process of radiation-induced carcinogenesis and characteristic patterns of DNA damage associated with environmental radiation exposure. In a separate study, Yeager et al. analyzed the genomes of 130 children and parents from families in which one or both parents had experienced gonadal radiation exposure related to the Chernobyl accident and the children were conceived between 1987 and 2002. Reassuringly, the authors did not find an increase in new germline mutations in this population. Science , this issue p. eabg2538 , p. 725