SGER: Mutation Rates and Fitness in the Barn Swallows of Chernobyl

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

0226153 Mousseau The explosion and subsequent nuclear fire ar the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986 led to one of the largest scale human-induced ecological disasters ever. Vast amounts of highly radioactive materials, estimated to be in the range of 50-200 million curies, were spread widely across the Eastern European landscape, and the northern lands of Ukraine will remain contaminated for tens of thousands of years to come.The regions surrounding the power plant were heavily contaminated by radioactive fallout. A considerable increase has been reported in thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia, chromosomal aberrations, and the frequency of congenital malformations and microsatellite instability in human populations around Chernobyl and Belarus. In collaboration with scientists at the French Centre National de Researche Scientifique (CNRS), The University of Extramadura in Badajoz, Spain, and the National Museum of Natural History in Kiev, Ukraine, we will investigate the effect of radioactive contaminants on a common bird species of Europe, the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica. We will compare morphological asymmetry, immunological assays, visible mutations (e.g., albinism), and mutations in microsatellite DNA and in the p53 genes (a gene often associated with cancers in human), as well as measure rates of offspring survival to fledging, in swallows living in the fallout area vs. in swallows living in uncontaminated areas. Because barn swallows most often occur in association with human habitation, this species is accessible for scientific study and can also serve as a model for studying the potential long-term effects of radioactive contamination on wildlife and human populations.