CYTOGENETICS RESEARCH IN RADIATION BIOLOGY

Radiation cytogenetics goes back approximately six decades and not onl y contributed to the earliest development of radiobiology, but continu es to contribute today. Contributions on three levels are outlined her e. Early contributions to radiobiological theory include the nature of dose-effect curves, dose-rate and fractionation effects, and linear e nergy transfer (LET) effects, Understanding of the roles of aberration s in endpoints such as cell killing, mutation and carcinogenesis have more recently contributed to unraveling mechanisms in these important radiobiological effects. Finally, the study of various details of clas sical radiation cytogenetics, such as half chromatid exchange or siste r chromatid union, has contributed to our current understanding of cyt ogenetic phenomena on the molecular level.