USE OF THE MICRONUCLEUS TEST FOR ECOLOGIC AL MONITORING IN ASTRAKHAN OBLAST

The effect of industrial and agricultural contamination of the environ ment on the formation of micronuclei in peripheral blood cells of the lake frog Rana ridibunda P. was studied. Simultaneously, the influence of mutagenic contaminants on the human gene pool in Astrakhan' and As trakhan' oblast' was analyzed. Frogs were trapped in three raions of A strakhan' oblast': the villages of Trudfront and Verkhnii Buzan and Ob livnoi Island. Peripheral blood smears were prepared and cells with mi cronuclei and nuclear material were analyzed. Cells with micronuclei w ere 94.5 times more abundant in frogs from ecologically unfavorable Ob livnoi Island than in animals from Trudfront and 1.2 times more plenti ful than in frogs from Verkhnii Buzan.