Evaluation of Metabolic Fate of Munitions Material (TNT and RDX) in Plant Systems and Initial Assessment of DNA Mutation Spectra as a Biomarker.

Munitions material can enter the environment as a result of manufacturing activities and field usage. Predictor methodologies, or biomarkers would enhance evaluation of environmental impacts. The goal of this exploratory study was to assess deoxyribonucleic acid DNA mutation frequency as a biomarker for munitions exposure. The approach involved, 1 the resolution of an effective repetitive sequence probe for the identification of characteristic mutations, and 2 the development of a testing media A CLONAL CELL LINE OF CARROT Daucus carota suspension cells. Commercially available probes demonstrated marginal resolution therefore a low-C0t library was then constructed. Three colonies from the low-C0t DNA library were screened and the DNA isolates sequenced. A suspension culture of carrot Daucus carota was developed. A mutation spectra experiment was initiated at a 10-mg TNTL exposure concentration with the attempt to clone over 1500 single TNT-exposed cells. Over the following six months greater than 98 of the initially isolated cells were unable to survive and produce micro palluses. The remaining call were too few to be statistically significant and the experiment was terminated. The biomarker concept itself remains to be disapproved, but the need for large numbers of uniform clones to differentiate tme mutations suggest that more direct techniques using whole tissues need to be developed.