Hereditary Minisatellite Mutations among the Offspring of Estonian Chernobyl Cleanup Workers

Abstract Kiuru, A., Auvinen, A., Luokkamaki, M., Makkonen, K., Veidebaum, T., Tekkel, M., Rahu, M., Hakulinen, T., Servomaa, K., Rytomaa, T. and Mustonen, R. Hereditary Minisatellite Mutations among the Offspring of Estonian Chernobyl Cleanup Workers. Radiat. Res. 159, 651–655 (2003). A single accidental event such as the fallout released from the Chernobyl reactor in 1986 can expose millions of people to non-natural environmental radiation. Ionizing radiation increases the frequency of germline mutations in experimental studies, but the genetic effects of radiation in humans remain largely undefined. To evaluate the hereditary effects of low radiation doses, we compared the minisatellite mutation rates of 155 children born to Estonian Chernobyl cleanup workers after the accident with those of their siblings born prior to it. All together, 94 de novo paternal minisatellite mutations were found at eight tested loci (52 and 42 mutants among children born after and before the accident, respectively). The min...