Applied Physics Researches Division (APRD)

Radiation Biophysics Researches

Posted on Dec 15, 2015

Radiation Biophysics Researches

TOPICS DEVELOPED IN DEPARTMENT 240/1
(former Laboratory of Radiation Biophysics (LRBPh), YerPhY)
POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS
2018 YEAR

(by G.E. Khachatryan)

 

Due to the historical reasons, despite of limited resources, several research topics are being under the development in LRBPh (unit 240/1) at present:

  1. Development of biosensors.

From 1981 to 1992, the Laboratory for Radiation Biophysics conducted large-scale studies on the creation of biosensors and flow-through analytical systems based on bacterial enzymes and cells for the determination of concentration of various natural biological compounds in the complex multicomponent liquid media such as blood or fermentation media in microbiological manufacture. In this connection, it should probably be pointed out that the working prototype of the flow-through enzyme analyzer ARFA-L based on the enzyme L-lysine-2-monooxygenase, designed to determine concentration of L-lysine in the microbiological industry, was awarded in 1988 with a silver medal of Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economic of the USSR.

In 1989, the laboratory, in the person of YerPhI, was involved in the implementation of the All-Union program of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “Biosensor”, designed for 4 years as one of the leading organizations. A computerized version of the flow-through analytical system was developed. Due to the replaceable active module it was able to determine the concentrations of L-lysine, uric acid, glucose, ethyl alcohol in the liquid media. Special mention should be made of the unique method for determination of amino acid L-proline on the basis of a bacterium isolated by the laboratory staff, which has an exclusive selectivity to the biotransformation of aminoacid L-proline. On the basis of this microorganism, the world’s only analytical system for the determination of L-proline concentration in the solutions was developed, and a methodology for determination of the degree of contamination of water with phenols was developed.

The sharp decline in funding after 1991 and, especially, in subsequent years, the collapse of the USSR led to the cessation of centralized financing. All this forced the work front to narrow, to reduce some of the directions, and to reorient the remaining ones. In particular, work on the creation of enzyme analytical systems has evolved into a study of the ability of microorganisms, mainly aerobic, to destroy toxic chemical compounds. The work of this direction was a logical continuation of the research on the search for the producers of enzymes to expand the field of application of biosensors, which allowed to continue the research activities in a part that can be formulated as: “Environmental protection”. The solution of a number of tasks that are currently being carried out in this direction will unambiguously allow the creation of a model of biosensor for monitoring the Environment. The works in this direction also are of great importance for the agro-industrial complex of the Republic of Armenia, taking into account the limited land resources of our country and the need to ensure their fertility.

 

Main publications on the topic:

Khachatrian G.E., Simonian A.L. Isolation, purification, and certain characteristics of L-lysine-2-monooxygenase from Pseudomonas putida. Biokhimia, 0006-2979/88/5308-1091, Plenum Publishing Corporation, pp.1091-1098, 1989.

Simonian A.L., Khachatrian G.E., Tatikian S.Sh., Avakian Ts.M., Badalian I.E. A flow-through enzyme analizer for determination of L-lysine concentration. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, vol.6, No 2, pp. 93-99, 1991.

Simonian A.L., Badalian I.E., Khachatrian G.E., Tatikian S.Sh., Rainina E.I., Machlis T.A., Lozinsky V.I., Varfolomeew D.S. A biosensor for L-proline determination by use of immobilized microbial cells. J. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, vol.36, pp. 199-210, 1992.

Khachatrian G.E., Mkrtchian, Khachatrian T.V., Simonian A.L. L-lysine-2-monooxygenase production by strains of Pseudomonas fluorescense and Ps. putida. World J. Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol.10, pp. 711-712, 1994.

  1. Environmental protection

First of all, two circumstances should probably be noted here: first, the development of biosensors is performed on the basis of various biological reactions, mainly enzymatic and immunochemical. Naturally, it is required to ensure the availability of various sources of enzymes and other biological active compounds capable of ultimately enabling the registration of a wide range of chemical target compounds. Consequently, a large collection of microorganisms is needed, knowledge of other possible sources of these biologically active compounds is necessary, modern technologies are needed to obtain and accumulate a sufficient volume of their cell biomass. Microorganisms, for example, play a huge role in the process of soil forming and maintaining its fertility. In other words, the microbial community, or rather its certain part, plays a decisive role in protecting a favorable environment. Taking into account the possibility of using the appropriate biological systems of microorganisms cell for the purpose of combating soil contamination with various pesticides and other technogenic xenobiotics, which in principle can’t be prevented from entering the soil, work in this direction is of exceptional importance. Therefore, we consider it important to emphasize the fact of creation in the laboratory, since the mid-1980s. of the last century, the unique collection of microorganisms-producers of various enzymes, which have specific activity for biodegradation of various substrates. Since the 95th year the collection has been significantly expanded and enriched with bacterial cultures that are highly tolerant to the presence of high concentrations of various chemical toxins, in particular pesticides. Among these cultures there are also some capable for biodegradation of a number of pesticides. The laboratory staff not only managed to keep the collection in the most difficult years, despite all the logistical difficulties and lack of finance up to the present day, but also to constantly expand it, taking advantage of the opportunities arising from the implementation of various environmental projects.

The second important circumstance is that for some pollutant targets, it may be necessary to use biologically active compounds of animal or vegetable origin. Currently, work in this direction is advisable to plan taking into account modern technologies for obtaining cell cultures of the relevant animals and plant tissues. In our case, for the purpose of developing biosensors for monitoring environmental pollution, the cell culture of a number of plants, for example, nodule tissues (bacteroides) of alfalfa or lupine, containing several subfractions of cytochrome P-450 (this type of universal protein included in the cytochrome chain of transformation of xenobiotics in a large number of cells of an animal, plant origin, and also in cells of many bacteria, may prove to be a likely constituent element of the bioactive component of the future biosensor). Work in this direction may also be promising from a commercial point of view for the agro-industrial complex, since they are the basis for microclonal propagation of various plants, and can serve for the purposes described in the previous section.

Main publications on the topic:

Khachatryan G.E., Mkrtchyan N.I., Simonyan N.V., Khachatryan T.V., Tatikyan S.Sh. Two Unidentified Aerobic Bacterial Strains That Transform 2,4,6-Tri­nitro­to­luene, World J. Microbiol.Biotechnol., 16, pp. 393 – 395, 2000.

Tatikyan S.Sh., Mkrtchyan N.I., Simonyan N.V., Khachatryan G.E. Biodegradation of triazine herbicides, Biol. J. Armenia, v. 62, No 1, pp. 36 – 42, 2010. (http://biology.asj-oa.am/4690/). (In Russian).

Mkrtchyan N.I., Kachatryan G.E., Tatikyan S.S., Simonyan N.V. The growth of some soil aerobic bacteria in the presence of insecticides Actara and Confidor, Biol. J. of Armenia, v. 63, No 3, pp. 6 – 14, 2011. (http://biology.asj-oa.am/8282/). (In Russian).

Khachatryan G.E., Mkrtchyan N.I. Pesticide usage and environmental protection, Advances in Energy, Environment and Materials Science: proceedings of International Conference on Energy Environment and Material Science, Guangzhou, China, 25-26 July, 2015, pp. 191-194, Proceedings in the book: Advances in Energy, Environment and Materials Science – Wang & Zhao (Eds), 2016, Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-02931-6 (DOI: http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/pdf/10.1201/b19635-42).

  1. Radioecology

In the period from 2002 to 2005, LRBPh YerPhI employees were involved in the implementation of ISTC Project A-773 “Net Effect of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant on the background of Global Radioactive Fallouts”. The aim of radioecological research, related to our competence, was: (i) to identify the effect of the wind rose on the distribution of polluting radionuclides around the ANPP (determination the distance from the source to the maximum contamination – in conjunction with the ANPP staff), (ii) confirmation of the effect of hormesis (dependence of the total number of bacterial soil population from the degree of its contamination with radionuclides) in relation to the radiation situation in the areas adjacent to the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP), and (iii) statement the correlation of the maxima of these dependences.

All the tasks assigned to the research team were successfully implemented, the report was submitted. However, the subsequent analysis of the results (during the preparation of materials for publication) revealed a number of issues that were covered in subsequent publications, and which led to a number of ideas. Currently, these ideas are formulating in the form of a new project jointly with the staff of the Department of Molecular Physics of the Faculty of Physics of Yerevan State University (YSU) and the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant. The main goal of the project will be to investigate the effects of long-term exposure of radionuclides-pollutants of soil (mainly 137Cs) to the bacterial population of the soil, in particular, on radiosensitive objects, the most sensitive of which are the biotypes putida and fluorescens of the Pseudomonas genus.

Main publications on the topic:

Khachatryan G.E., Mkrtchyan N.I., Simonyan N.V., Arakelyan V.B., Avakyan Ts.M.,  Pyuskyulyan K.I., Atoyan A.V. Reaction of the Soil Microbiota on the Influence of Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, Biol. J. Armenia, 66 (2), pp. 6874, 2014. (http://biology.asj-oa.am/11122/).

Khachatryan G.E., Mkrtchyan N.I., Simonyan N.V., Arakelyan V.B. The content and radiosensitivity of the bacteria of Pseudomonas and Bacillus genera in soil samples from the sites adjacent to Armenian nuclear power plant, Biol. J. Armenia, 66 (3), стр. 6-13, 2014 г, ISSN 0366-5119, (http://biology.asj-oa.am/11131/).

Khachatryan G.E., Arakelyan V.B., Simonyan N.V., Mkrtchyan N.I., Avakyan Ts.M., Pyuskyulyan K.I.  Some aspects of the radioecology in the areas adjacent to Armenian  NPP, in the book: Genetics, Evolution and Radiation: Crossing Borders, The Interdisciplinary Legacy of Nikolay W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky Korogodina VL, Mothersill C, Inge-Vechtomov SG, Seymour C (Eds), Springer, Netherlands, Ch.9, pp. 315-328, 2017.

  • Modeling of SpaceBiology problems (CrioRadioBiology)

In connection with the expected launch of the cyclotron, the projects were prepared for submission to the State Committee for Science that was not funding however the leadership of the Institute of Synchrotron Research “CANDLE” was interested. As a result, the theme was developed, which we called “Space Biology” or Cryoradiobiology. This direction has become, precisely, the object of intensive development for the last two years. Its goal is (i) to evaluate the effects of low temperatures on a number of bacterial cultures, including on such classical objects of radiobiological studies as strains of bacteria E. coli; (ii) to use them as an object of irradiation with electron beams of different energies using the accelerator of the new generation AREAL (CANDLE), and compare the obtained results with the data we obtained earlier using microtron with an energy of 7.5 MeV (YerPhI); (iii) to repeat the irradiation at ultra-low temperatures (at liquid nitrogen temperature). The results of the performed works can be acquainted with from the report for 2017, here we just consider expedient to emphasize an interesting preliminary data, namely: a correlation between the radiosensitivity and cryosensitivity of the tested strains of E. coli. At present, the works are under the stage of accumulation the statistical data to confirm the reliability of the obtained results. We emphasize once again that in the literature the data on this account was not found.

Radiobiology. A separate area of ​​research on this topic can be considered purely radiobiological studies of the effects of beams of different particles on bacterial cultures. In particular, the problem of obtaining the mutant strains of cultures capable of utilizing xenobiotics is of great interest. The purpose of such studies is to increase the target activity of these cultures. According to the literature data, the yield of mutants increases when passing from gamma beams to heavy ions. Since the production of highly active strains with the desired target activity is of great interest, studies on electron and proton beams are very promising. From this point of view, we hope that it is possible to conduct appropriate experiments on a cyclotron with the energy of protons up to 18 MeV after its launch. If necessary, the ready text of the relevant draft can be submitted for consideration. In addition, it should be noted that similar experiments can be carried out on neutron beams using the Pu-Be source available in the Isotope Research and Development Division. Unfortunately, the intensity of the beam of this source is very small, and the preliminary results of our experiments have shown the need for variations in the technical conditions of the performed experiments. It is difficult to say whether it is possible to achieve tangible results by increasing the exposure time. However, it is known that under the suitable conditions of irradiation, the peak of mutants yield, for example, for the cells of E. coli (Lac– mutants) locates separately from the death peak on the graph, which gives a real possibility of their isolation.

Main publications on the topic:

Avakyan Ts.M., Mkrtchyan N.I., Simonyan N.V., Khachatryan G.E. The Research of Biological Action of the Electrons with the Energy of 7.5 MeV on the Cells of E. Coli K-12 Bacteria Having Different Reparation Genotype, The Report of NAS of Armenia, v.111, No 2, pp. 164-170, 2011 (http://elib.sci.am/2011_2/08_2_2011.pdf). (In Russian).

Khachatryan G.E., Simonyan N.V., Mkrtchyan N.I., Arakelyan V.B., Tatikyan S.Sh., Tsakanov V.M., Antonyan P.M., Karamyan S.K., Harutyunyan V.V. Modeling of certain problems of space biology in Earth conditions., Biol. J. Armenia, 68 (2), pp.21-29, 2016. (http://biology.asj-oa.am/11275/). (In English).

POSSIBILITY OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE THEMES

As can be seen from the above, all these directions are either interrelated, or the technical capabilities of one direction are useful during the solving the problems of a different orientation. We consider it extremely important to emphasize that almost all the topics mentioned are at the intersection of various fields of science, and also to indicate the laboriousness and scope of the studies necessary for obtaining the final result.

At the disposal of the group to date, there are almost all the technical means for performing the specified work in the stated volume. Additional means and strengthening of the instrument park may be required at the stage, after the implementation of the current plans in each direction. At the same time, there are a number of problems, the solution of which would enhance the comfort of the working space and facilitate more efficient solution of tasks in a shorter period of time.

The premises were not repaired once since the commissioning of the building in 1982. It was desirable to carry out at least a partial repair of the rooms most used for the work. In these rooms, it would be desirable to replace the window framings to prevent heat leakage during the winter. The existing window frames are defective, the parquet in a number of rooms lags behind the concrete base, there are the slots in some rooms, due to which the wind is blown through. It would be desirable to replace some washbasins and change faucets. A number of water supply valves are out of order, as a result of which it is impossible to cut off water for repair of existing (mixing) faucets and bib-cocks.

The working space, basically, is equipped with everything that necessary for the performance of the listed works with equipment and premises, in particular, with special-purpose boxes. However, taking into account the fact that many devices are morally and physically obsolete, there is a need for repair and replacement of some of them. In particular, it is necessary to repair refrigerators and refrigerating cabinets, some devices need professional assessment of the state in terms of the possibility of further operation (polarograph, Specord-M40 spectrophotometer, Pharmacia-LKB fraction collector – also requires retrofitting with a UV detector). There are thermostats, drying boxes, laminar box, flask shakers, X-ray unit RUM-17, laser units (red light), autoclave of Hungarian production – all in working condition (however it would be highly desirable to purchase a new one, as afterwards is in operation for more than 40 years).

In order to effectively carry out work on developing a biosensor for environmental monitoring, it is very desirable to purchase the HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) system in the future.

Over time, it will be necessary to purchase a PH-meter, a distiller, a unit for deionization of water, UV lamps for sterilizing rooms, supplies and accessories: automatic pipettes, thin-layer chromatography plates, glassware, chemicals, and so on.

The group needs for the modern powerful computer – one available is purchased in 2003.
However, it is advisable to emphasize that the above-described work can be performed under existing conditions with the available equipment.

  1. The staff of the group.

From 2008 to the present, the composition of the working team (10 people initially) has been continuously decreasing (retirement by age, death), and currently all of these topics are carried out by two YerPhI staff, assisted by staff of organizations that are in informal collaboration with group: CANDLE, YSU and ArmBiotechnology. Given this fact, as well as the laboriousness and volume of the work carring out, it is highly desirable to strengthen the group by at least two, desirable three employees: it is desirable to recruit one experienced specialist who possesses the methods of applied microbiology and preparative biochemistry, as well as one or two young specialists, including one, with biophysical education. This would speed up the pace of work, their effectiveness, and also preserve the potential of the group in the future.

  1. Financial security.

In the present, an in-depth financial analysis is not advisable; all will depend on the desire of the directorate to agree with the proposed program or reject it. The minimum required logistical support is presented in the plans for the current year, namely:

Vortex mixer                                                               –   70 000 AMD
Eppendorf Type Variable Size Pipettes sets              – 150 000  -“-
Different types of laboratory glass                             – 200 000  -“-
Chemical reagents                                                      – 200 000  -“-
Water distillation apparatus                                        – 145,000  -“-
Total                                                                           – 765 000 AMD

Here it is necessary to add the salary of two employees:
Head of the group – 145 000 (staff salary – 120 000 + 25 000 extra charge of the candidate of biological sciences)
Engineer-biologist – 100 000
Total for the year:
s / p: (145000 х 12) + (100000 х 12) =                      2 940 000.00 drams,
plus logistic support:                                                     765 000.00     -“-
those. totally:                                                              3 705 000.00 AMD.

However, as noted above, it is highly desirable to add at least two more rates with a salary of 100,000 drams in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the work. In this case, at the same material and technical costs, it is required 6 105 000.00 drams.

In the event that the management deems it possible to support the proposals submitted for consideration, it will be possible to conduct a more detailed financial analysis with the provision of appropriate calculations.

NOTES

  1. It is not in current plans to attract master or postgraduate students currently for participation in works, since YerPhI is not a specialized organization on biological topics. In the same time we are able providing necessary support to the YSU, Institute of ArmBiotechnology or CANDLE for the fulfillment of diploma and candidate (PhD) works during the implementation of joint topics, if the YerPhI leadership agrees to support the research topics proposed for the development.
  2. After the publication of the paper “Some aspects of the radioecology in the areas adjacent to the Armenian NPP”, in the book: Genetics, Evolution and Radiation: Crossing Borders, The Interdisciplinary Legacy of Nikolay W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky – Korogodina VL, Mothersill C, Inge-Vechtomov SG, Seymour C (Eds), Springer, Netherlands, Ch.9, pp. 315-328, 2017, several invitations to the international conferences (letters can be provided) have been received in recent months, almost all as chairman of the section and/or speaker. Taking into consideration problemness of funding such the trips on the part of the Institute, there was not made appeals to the Directorate till now. This circumstance is mentioned in this note in the hope that if the proposed program of work is approved, the Institute’s leadership will come to meet in future and will provide the necessary financial support.
  3. We consider it necessary to emphasize especially that almost all these thematic areas have the potential to get a commercial outlet. Of particular interest from this point of view is the proposal to develop microclonal propagation techniques (see Section 2 of the TOPICS). In the course of time, work on the protection and monitoring of the environment can also be of great commercial interest, especially takig into account the limited land resources of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the impossibility of refusing the use of pesticides and mineral fertilizers in the coming years.
  4. We also consider it necessary to provide a justification for the feasibility of carrying out these developments in YerPhI, despite the profile (Biology-Biophysics). Firstly, since the establishment of the Laboratory of Radiation Biophysics, a powerful set of topics on biology and biophysics has been developed at YerPhI, and our group was invited by the YerPhI leadership in 1981 precisely to develop the topic of biosensors. Secondly, at present YerPhI has the status of the National Scientific Laboratory, that means, it is assumed that our institution has a wide-ranging research character. This fact is confirmed by its constitution, where it is unequivocally stated by the items “23.1.է” and “23.1.ը” that biophysical researches and technological developments in the field of natural sciences are included in the list of priority directions of research activity of «A.I. Alikhanyans National Science Laboratory Foundation (YerPhI)». Thirdly, the powerful scientific and production base of YerPhI and the presence of specialists in the engineering and technical field are of great importance for the research: sources of ionizing radiation, workshops, technical workers (locksmiths, turners, milling machines), electronics engineers. All this allowed in the past and, undoubtedly, will allow further operatively solving the arising technical problems. We draw the attention of the leadership of Institute to the fact that the Laboratory of Radiation Biophysics of YerPhI was the only official profile organization of this direction in Armenia.

ACTUALITY OF THE BASIC THEMES (Creation of biosensors)

The following list of international forums held in the world devoted to the problem of creating biosensors makes it possible to verify the relevance of the main direction of the proposed studies:

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https://www.elsevier.com/events/conferences/world-congress-on-biosensors

28th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors, 12-15 June 2018 | Miami, Florida, USA

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https://biosensors.conferenceseries.com/

10th International Conference & Exhibition on Biosensors & Bioelectronics, September 21-22, 2018 Dallas, USA

Theme: Research, Design, Development and Application of Biosensors and Bioelectronics

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https://waset.org/conference/2018/12/istanbul/ICBB

 

ICBB 2018: 20th International Conference on Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Istanbul, Turkey, December 20 – 21, 2018

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https://www.omicsonline.org/conferences-list/biosensors-bioelectronics

9th World Congress on Biosensors and Bioelectronics, August 29-30, 2018 Tokyo, Japan

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https://www.meetingsint.com/conferences/biosensor-bioelectronics

World Congress on Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Chicago, USA,  August 20-21, 2018

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http://www.giiconference.com/chi563236/

Biosensors 2018, Boston, MA USA, May 16 – 17, 2018

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Biosensor Conference, Bristol UK, March 14-15, 2018

Biosensor Conference, Bristol UK, March 14-15, 2018

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We also consider it worthwhile to give examples of Conferences, which personal invitations were received for:

It is our great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to join the 9th Anniversary World DNA Day (WDD-2018) during April 25-27, 2018 in Dalian, China. The organizing committee shows great interest in Some Aspects of Radioecology in the Areas Adjacent to Armenian NPP of your team and hope that you can make a speech in Scene 3107: Genetics and Genomics of the congress, we believe your participation will add great value for WDD-2018

It is our great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to join the 9th World Gene Convention-2018, which will take place in Singapore during November 13-15, 2018. We would like to welcome you to be the chair/speaker in Symposium 1-4: Non-Human Genetics and Genomics Models Research while presenting about Some Aspects of Radioecology in the Areas Adjacent to Armenian NPP….

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we would like to extend to you a formal invitation as a speaker under at The 8th Annual World Congress of Molecular & Cell Biology – 2018 (CMCB-2018) which will be held in Fukuoka, Japan during October 16-18, 2018. We sincerely welcome you to talk about Some Aspects of Radioecology in the Areas Adjacent to Armenian NPP in Theme 401: Role of Molecular & Cell Biology in Translational Medicine of the congress.

 

 

–Old version––Old version––Old version––Old version––Old version–

Investigation of microbiological destruction of xenobiotics/pesticides.

  • Scanning of the cultures of microorganisms is performed in the collection of cultures stored at the Laboratory of radiation biophysics to find out the cultures with tolerance to the presence of high concentration of pesticides. A number of strains capable to destroy herbicides metazine and propazine are revealed. Only strain is found out capable to grow effectively in the medium containing insecticide actara. No culture capable to grow effectively in the presence of insecticide confidor was revealed. In all cases, pesticides served as the only source of nutrition (as the source of carbon and nitrogen).
  • With the purpose of collection, an extensive site survey enlargement was organized with the active support of the Ministry of ecology, and several samples of soil from the territory of the Nubarashen toxic chemicals burial were taken. From the samples of soil taken from various sites of the burial, few tens of strains were isolated, some of which had revealed capability to grow in the medium containing confidor, and some more – rather intensively growth on actara.
  • The cultures grown on actara have shown the ability to form «halo» – a nimbus around the colony, the phenomenon testifying intensive catabolic processes in the cells of microorganisms. The character of the halo formation specifies that the enzymes involved in the process are most likely of an inducible nature.
  • The preliminary results on shake-flask fermentations have shown a weak (within 10 %) ability of one of the selected cultures to utilize the actara.
  • During the experiments on shake-flask fermentations, mutagenic influence of actara on the strains grown in its presence was revealed.

Obtaining of mutant strains with higher purposeful destructive activity using ionizing and non-ionizing radiations.

¡Investigation of biological influence of electrons with the energy 7.5 MeV on microorganisms

Some differences on survival curves of the E. Coli strains of different genotypes were revealed depending on the electron linear energy transfer in comparison with with other type of irradiations.

Investigation of the impact of Armenian NPP on microbiota of soils around the NPP.

This cycle of investigations was performed during the reporting period in the frame of ISTC project A-773 (“Net Effect of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant on Environment and Population in the Background of Global Radioactive Fallouts”). It will be very useful to repeat this cycle of research to confirm this result and estimate reasonableness of the use of microorganizms as bioindicators of radiation impact.

Investigation of radioprotection properties of proline rich polypeptides of brain

  • It has been experimentally shown that 1 mkg PRP increase the radioprotectiviti of nonlinear mice at the LD50/30 dose of X-ray radiation
  • The 1 mkg PRP, which was given to mice by intramuscular injection 24 hours before radiation, provides 100% survivability at the X-ray irradiation of LD 50/30 dose, and simultaneously it was registered 50% lethality in 30 day period in the control group.
  • In the experimental group of animals (injected PRP) there was no registered lethality in 60 day period after 30 day post radiation period, which means that PRP removes influence of X-ray radiation in long postradiation period.
  • For experimental determination of free radical interactions in tissues under the influence of X-ray radiation was projected and designed luminometer, which is equipped with a Hamamatsu H9319-02 (Hamamatsu Japan) multi-alkali photomultiplier and the National Instruments data acquisition card NI DAQ .