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The Molecular Basis for Radiation Effects on Cells¹

Department of Molecular Biophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

The reasons are pointed out for the generally accepted conclusion that radiation inactivation of cells happens as the result of only a few events, or even a single event, at the molecular level. Nine reasons are then given for thinking that DNA is the radiosensitive target. From the known mechanisms of radiation damage to DNA, the inactivation of single-stranded and double-stranded viruses can be at least partly understood. A simple hypothesis is that ionizing radiation acts by either breaking the DNA molecule physically in 2, thus interfering with its continuity, or by destroying bases on both complementary strands. If these ideas are applied to the radiation inactivation of bacterial or mammalian cells, it is difficult to see why they are so radioresistant, even making allowance for the operation of repair systems.

¹ The writing of this paper was supported in part by contract AT(30-1)-2653 from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.