HIGH-LEVELS OF GENETIC CHANGE IN RODENTS OF CHERNOBYL

BASE-PAIR substitution rates for the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene o f free-living, native populations of voles collected next to reactor 4 at Chernobyl, Ukraine, were estimated by two independent methods to b e in excess of 10(-4) nucleotides per site per generation. These estim ates are hundreds of times greater than those typically found in mitoc hondria of vertebrates, suggesting that the environment resulting from this nuclear power plant disaster is having a measurable genetic impa ct on the organisms of that region. Despite these DNA changes, vole po pulations thrive and reproduce in the radioactive regions around the C hernobyl reactor.