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Children of radar soldiers exposed to high doses of radiation during their service experience more genetic alterations than families without radiation exposure. A pilot study ddemostrated by the research team involving Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and the University Hospital Bonn, shows that children of radar soldiers exposed to high doses of radiation during their service experience more genetic alterations than families without radiation exposure.
Until the 1980s, military radar systems were often inadequately shielded against spurious radiation emitted by radar amplifier tubes. Such rays can cause radiation damage to service and maintenance personnel. A commission of experts made recommendations on compensatory payments. Since some children of former radar soldiers suffer from physical disabilities attributed to the radiation exposure of their fathers, their children are now in the spotlight. Whether radiation led to genotype damage in these children is debated
A research team from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and the University Hospital Bonn have now investigated this question in a pilot study. Using the latest methods of high-throughput sequencing, the complete genomes of parents and their children can be studied within a short time. This determine the mutation rates after radiation exposure.
The scientists studied the genomes of twelve families of radar soldiers. The entire genomes of 18 offspring and their parents were sequenced. The exact radiation exposure of the soldiers cannot be determined retroactively. Researchers estimate, however, that a ‘high dose’ of radiation emanated from the radar systems, especially because radar soldiers very frequently became ill, many from cancer. Scientists compared the mutation rates in the genomes of radar soldier families with that of children of parents who were not exposed to radiation.
The focus was on so-called ‘multisite de novo mutations’ (MSDN), which have already been demonstrated in mice because of radiation. An MSDN is present when two or more defects in DNA strands occur adjacently to each other in a line of 20 base pairs. While in the families without radiation exposure, only every fifth offspring had an MSDN, in the radar soldier families this was two out of three children.
Twelve MSDNs were found in the 18 children of radar soldiers, in one family indeed six MSDNs in three children. In addition, in two children, chromosomal alterations were also detected that had serious clinical consequences. The origin of these mutations could also be traced back to the paternal germ line and only rarely occurs by chance. The results suggest that an accumulation of certain genotype damage by radiation can basically be demonstrated in the next generation.