An alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay for environmental biomonitoring with native rodents

The main advantages of single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCG) are its applic ability to any eukaryotic organism and cell type, its low cost and the shor t rime required to obtain results. These properties make the SCG assay part icularly useful in screening for environmental genotoxicity. The present st udy describes a modified version of this technique for use in field work wi th native rodents and examines some factors which influence the outcome of the assay. Wild rodents (Ctenomys torquatus, "tuco-tuco") from a region clo se to a strip coal mine and from a region with no coal mines were used. Ani mals from the coal mining region had significantly more DNA damage than tho se from the control area. The use of this SCG technique for direct sampling in the field should facilitate environmental genotoxicity studies with nat ural populations, without the need to remove the animals from their habitat or to sacrifice them.