Clustered DNA damage induced by protons radiation in plasmid DNA

Clustered DNA damage is considered as a critical type of lesions induced by ionizing radiation, which can be converted into the fatal or strong mutagenic complex double strand breaks (DSBs) during damage processing in the cells. The new data show that high energy protons produce more potentially lethal DSBs than low LET radiation. In this study, plasmid DNA were used to in-vestigate and re-evaluate the biological effects induced by the protons with the LET of ～3.6 keV/μm at the molecular level in vitro, including single strand breaks (SSBs), DSBs, isolated and clustered base damages. The results of complex DNA damage detections indicated that protons at the given LET value induce about 1.6 fold more non-DSB clustered DNA damages than the prompt DSB. The DNA damage yields by protons were greater than that by γ-rays, specifically by 6 fold for the isolated type of DNA damage and 14 fold for the clustered damage. Furthermore, the spectrum of damages was also demonstrated to be depended on the radiation quality, with protons producing more DSBs relative to clusters than do γ-rays.     

辐射损伤对两套蛋白质晶体衍射数据质量的影响

在蛋白质晶体衍射数据采集过程中样品会受到X射线的辐射损伤.辐射损伤打乱分子中的共价键造成蛋白质分子中二硫键的断裂和错位,甚至打乱晶格结构,是引起蛋白质晶体学中采集准确衍射数据误差的一个主要原因.通过对溶菌酶蛋白及Acutolysin-C蛋白单波长反常散射数据的分析,讨论了样品在受辐照过程中累积的辐射损伤对衍射数据以及反常散射信号的影响.