Micronuclei and chromosome aberrations derived from the action of Atrazine herbicide in Allium cepa meristematic cells

Maria Aparecida Marin-Morales

Sifa Turkoglu(turkoglu@cumhuriyet.edu.tr)

Recep Liman(recep.liman@usak.edu.tr)

Sumitha K V(sumithathushar@hotmail.com)

Daniel Lerda(dlerda@coyspu.com.ar)

Bruna de Campos Ventura Camargo, Micronuclei and chromosome aberrations derived from the action of Atrazine herbicide in Allium cepa meristematic cells(2016)SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies 1(1)

Atrazine is an herbicide that causes serious damage to the environment and possibly affects the genetic material of organisms that come into contact with this agent, provoking mutations in their DNA. Although the herbicide Atrazine has been tested by various systems, a large number of deficiencies have been reported for many assays, and some evidence of its genotoxic effects still needs to be confirmed. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the herbicide Atrazine effects, analyzing the mitotic index alterations and the induction of chromosome aberrations, using the Allium cepa test system. Fifty Allium cepa seeds were used for germination in Atrazine solutions at the concentration used in the field (0.125 ppm) and at progressively lower concentrations (0.062, 0.031 and 0.015 ppm). After 20 h, some roots were then collected from each assay, while the remaining roots were transferred to plates containing Milli-Q water and allowed to recover for 48 h. The herbicide reduced the germination indexes of seeds, the mitotic indexes of cells and induced alterations in the genetic material of the test organism, what suggests that this herbicide presents genotoxic effect at all concentrations tested.

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