Review of microbial resistance to chronic ionizing radiation exposure under environmental conditions

Shuryak, Igor

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.10.012

Cited by 60 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 186 publications

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“…It is possible that melanin could provide protection only to chronic exposure to low doses of IR, such as would be experienced near a site contaminated with nuclear waste (Shuryak et al ., ; Shuryak, ). In fact, melanin is thought to produce free radicals when it absorbs electromagnetic radiation of sufficient intensity (Hill, ), to the detriment of biological tissues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some fungal species exhibit remarkable resistance to ionizing radiation [IR (Dadachova and Casadevall, )], demonstrated by their ability to colonize environments with high IR levels, such as space (Castro et al ., ; Cucinotta and Durante, ; Novikova et al ., ; Onofri et al ., ; Selbmann et al ., ; Cordero, ) or sites of nuclear disasters (Zhdanova et al ., ; Shuryak, ). The yeasts Cryptococcus neoformans , Ustilago maydis and Aureobasidium pullulans have been shown to withstand doses greater than 5000 Gray (Gy, 1 J kg −1 ) of γ‐radiation in the laboratory (Holliday, ; Lee and Yarranton, ; Holloman et al ., ; Jung et al ., ; Liu et al ., ; Milisavljevic et al ., ), approximately 500–1000× higher than doses lethal to mammalian cell lines (Anno et al ., ; Qing et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The response of the melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis to gamma radiation exposure

Schultzhaus

Romsdahl

Chen

et al. 2020

Environmental Microbiology

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Summary The melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis is resistant to many environmental stresses and is used as a model for understanding the diverse roles of melanin in fungi. Here, we describe the extent of resistance of E. dermatitidis to acute γ‐radiation exposure and the major mechanisms it uses to recover from this stress. We find that melanin does not protect E. dermatitidis from γ‐radiation. Instead, environmental factors such as nutrient availability, culture age and culture density are much greater determinants of cell survival after exposure. We also observe a dramatic transcriptomic response to γ‐radiation that mobilizes pathways involved in morphological development, protein degradation and DNA repair, and is unaffected by the presence of melanin. Together, these results suggest that the ability of E. dermatitidis to survive γ‐radiation exposure is determined by the prior and the current metabolic state of the cells as well as DNA repair mechanisms, and that small changes in these conditions can lead to large effects in radiation resistance, which should be taken into account when understanding how diverse fungi recover from this unique stress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The response of the melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis to gamma radiation exposure

Schultzhaus

Romsdahl

Chen

et al. 2020

Environmental Microbiology

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“…Such adaptations may be related to efficient mechanisms for repairing damaged DNA, and for eliminating damaged proteins (Friedberg, Walker, & Siede, 1995). Fungi are generally known to have naturally high resistance to gamma radiation (Saleh et al, 1988), with basidiomycete and ascomycete yeasts identified as particularly resistant group (Shuryak, 2019; Zhdanova et al., 1991). Our results for M. lychnidis‐dioicae appear to concur with this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anther‐smut fungi from more contaminated sites in Chernobyl show lower infection ability and lower viability following experimental irradiation

Arnaise

Shykoff

Møller

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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The long‐term contamination that followed the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl provides a case study for the effects of chronic ionizing radiation on living organisms and on their ability to tolerate or evolve resistance to such radiation. Previously, we studied the fertility and viability of early developmental stages of a castrating plant pathogen, the anther‐smut fungus Microbotryum lychnidis‐dioicae, isolated from field sites varying over 700‐fold in degree of radioactive contamination. Neither the budding rate of haploid spores following meiosis nor the karyotype structure varied with increasing radiation levels at sampling sites. Here, we assessed the ability of the same M. lychnidis‐dioicae strains to perform their whole life cycle, up to the production of symptoms in the plants, that is, the development of anthers full of fungal spores; we also assessed their viability under experimental radiation. Fungal strains from more contaminated sites had no lower spore numbers in anthers or viability, but infected host plants less well, indicating lower overall fitness due to radioactivity exposure. These findings improve our understanding of the previous field data, in which the anther‐smut disease prevalence on Silene latifolia plants caused by M. lychnidis‐dioicae was lower at more contaminated sites. Although the fungus showed relatively high resistance to experimental radiation, we found no evidence that increased resistance to radiation has evolved in populations from contaminated sites. Fungal strains from more contaminated sites even tolerated or repaired damage from a brief acute exposure to γ radiation less well than those from non‐ or less contaminated sites. Our results more generally concur with previous studies in showing that the fitness of living organisms is affected by radiation after nuclear disasters, but that they do not rapidly evolve higher tolerance.

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“…Thus, some extremophilic bacterial and archaeal species have been isolated from high-level radioactive waste sites at Savannah River in South Carolina and at Hanford in Washington [7,8], spent nuclear fuel storage pools at Sellafield, UK [9] and Madras Atomic Power Station, Kalpakkam [10], German salt dome Gorleben [11], from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant buildings [12,13,14]. According to the most widely accepted theory, the origin of cross-resistance to ionizing radiation and other types of stress may be related to overlap between mechanisms of resistance to IR and other stressors [15]. However, radioresistance is not limited only to extremophiles, but can occur among common microbial species, as it was found in river sediment soils exposed to radioactive contamination from Fukushima [16], or it can be cultivated in laboratory from radiosensitive variants [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DetR DB: A Database of Ionizing Radiation Resistance Determinants

Ryabova¹,

Козлова²,

Kadirov³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Nuclear pollution is an urgent environmental issue as a consequence of rapid industrialization and nuclear accidents in the past. Remediation of nuclear polluted sites using microbial vital activity (bioremediation) is a promising approach to recover contaminated areas in an environmentally friendly and cost-saving way. At the same time, the number of known bacterial and archaeal species able to withstand extremely high doses of ionizing radiation is steadily growing every year, together with growing knowledge about mechanisms of radioresistance. This opens up new opportunities for developing new biotechnological solutions. However, these data are often not systemized and it can be difficult to access. Here, we present the Determinants of Radioresistance Database, or DetR DB (http://extremebiolab.com/detr-db/), gathering a comprehensive catalog of radioresistant microbes and their molecular and genetic determinants of enhanced ionizing radiation tolerance. The database provides search tools including taxonomy, common gene name, and BLAST. DetR DB will be a useful tool for research community by facilitating the extraction of the necessary information to help further analysis of radiation-resistant mechanisms.

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Review of microbial resistance to chronic ionizing radiation exposure under environmental conditions

Cited by 60 publications

References 186 publications

The response of the melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis to gamma radiation exposure

The response of the melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis to gamma radiation exposure

Anther‐smut fungi from more contaminated sites in Chernobyl show lower infection ability and lower viability following experimental irradiation

DetR DB: A Database of Ionizing Radiation Resistance Determinants

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