June 7, 2021 We held an IER Special Seminar online.＜by Dr. Stanislav Geras’kin＞

On June 7, the lecture on the subject “Effects of Radiation Exposure” by Prof. Stanislav Geras’kin was attended by three IER graduate school master students, and several members of the IER and Fukushima University. Prof. Geras’kin talked about the effects of chronic radiation on plants observed in severely contaminated lands, such as the Chernobyl zone, the Semipalatinsk test site, and the evacuation area in Fukushima. The overall approach was to trace radiation-induced effects occurring at different levels of biological complexity, from molecules to ecosystems. Prof. Geras’kin presented a comprehensive set of data demonstrating the plant response to radiation exposure, including cytogenetic alterations, mutations, genetic variability in exposed plant populations, epigenetic changes, differential gene expression, as well as changes in hormone balance, enzyme activity and morphometric indices. In the Q&A session, the lecture participants discussed the potential contribution of transposable elements in response to radiation and the possible mechanisms behind the temporal patterns of chromosome aberration frequency in individual plants and in populations.