Effect of combined heat and radiation on microbial destruction.

A series of experiments at several levels of relative humidity and radiation dose rates was carried out using spores of Bacillus subtilis var. niger to evaluate the effect of heat alone, radiation alone, and a combination of heat and radiation. Combined heat and radiation treatment of microorganisms yields a destruction rate greater than the additive rates of the independence agents. The synergistic mechanism shows a proportional dependency on radiation dose rate an Arrhenius dependency on temperature, and a dependency on relative humidity. Maximum synergism occurs under conditions where heat and radiation individually destroy microorganisms at approximately equal rates. Larger synergistic advantage is possible at low relative humidities rather than at high relative humidities.     

Effect of combined heat and radiation on microbial destruction.

A series of experiments at several levels of relative humidity and radiation dose rates was carried out using spores of Bacillus subtilis var. niger to evaluate the effect of heat alone, radiation alone, and a combination of heat and radiation. Combined heat and radiation treatment of microorganisms yields a destruction rate greater than the additive rates of the independence agents. The synergistic mechanism shows a proportional dependency on radiation dose rate an Arrhenius dependency on temperature, and a dependency on relative humidity. Maximum synergism occurs under conditions where heat and radiation individually destroy microorganisms at approximately equal rates. Larger synergistic advantage is possible at low relative humidities rather than at high relative humidities.     

Effect of gamma radiation on retroviral recombination.

To elucidate the mechanism(s) of retroviral recombination, we exposed virions to gamma radiation prior to infecting target cells. By using previously described spleen necrosis virus-based vectors containing multiple markers, recombinant proviruses were studied after a single round of retrovirus replication. The current models of retroviral recombination predict that breaking virion RNA should promote minus-strand recombination (forced copy-choice model), decrease or not affect plus-strand recombination (strand displacement/assimilation model), and shift plus-strand recombination towards the 3' end of the genome. However, we found that while gamma irradiation of virions reduced the amount of recoverable viral RNA, it did not primarily cause breaks. Thus, the frequency of selected recombinants was not significantly altered with greater doses of radiation. In spite of this, the irradiation did decrease the number of recombinants with only one internal template switch. As a result, the average number of additional internal template switches in the recombinant proviruses increased from 0.7 to 1.4 as infectivity decreased to 6%. The unselected internal template switches tended to be 5' of the selected crossover even in the recombinants from irradiated viruses, inconsistent with a plus-strand recombination mechanism.     

Interaction between radiation and drug damage in mammalian cells. III. The effect of adriamycin and actinomycin-D on the repair of potentially lethal radiation damage.

We have studied the effects of actinomycin-D (AMD) and Adriamycin (ADRM) on the repair of radiation damage in Chinese hamster cells (V79) in plateau phase growth. Suppression of potentially lethal damage repair (PLDR) was observed in the presence of non-toxic levels of AMD and minimally toxic levels of ADRM. The suppression of PLDR by AMD persisted as long as the drug was present. Removal of AMD was followed by prompt repair of potentially lethal injury suggesting that suppression of PLDR by AMD was not accompanied by fixation of injury to a non-repairable state. On the other hand, irradiated cells exposed to ADRM eventually repair potentially lethal injury in the presence of drug after an initial delay. AMD, but not ADRM, inhibited repair of sublethal radiation damage.     

Effect of physiological age on radiation resistance of some bacteria that are highly radiation resistant.

Physiological age-dependent variation in radiation resistance was studied for three bacteria that are highly radiation resistant: Micrococcus radiodurans, Micrococcus sp. isolate C-3, and Moraxella sp. isolate 4. Stationary-phase cultures of M. radiodurans and isolate C-3 were much more resistant to gamma radiation than were log-phase cultures. This pattern of relative resistance was reversed for isolate 4. Resistance of isolate 4 to UV light was also greater during log phase, although heat resistance and NaCl tolerance after heat stress were greater during stationary phase. Radiation-induced injury of isolate 4 compared with injury of Escherichia coli B suggested that the injury process, as well as the lethal process, was affected by growth phase. The hypothesis that growth rate affects radiation resistance was tested, and results were interpreted in light of the probable confounding effect of methods used to alter growth rates of bacteria. These results indicate that dose-response experiments should be designed to measure survival during the most resistant growth phase of the organism under study. This timing is particularly important when extrapolations of survival results might be made to potential irradiation processes for foods.