I believe that some forms of radiation can denature proteins. But can any sort of electromagnetic radiation actually cause changes in nucleic acid composition? Specifically, can portions of bases be deleted or rearranged by radiation?
The effects of electromagnetic radiation upon living cells, including those in humans, depends upon the radiation's power and frequency. For low-frequency radiation (radio waves to visible light) the best-understood effects are those due to radiation power alone, acting through heating when radiation is absorbed. For these thermal effects, frequency is important only as it affects penetration into the organism (for example, microwaves penetrate better than infrared). It is widely accepted that low frequency fields that are too weak to cause significant heating could not possibly have any biological effect .
Possibly hereby I attach two articles... which implies that there will be alteration in DNA/RNA.
if you leave your pcr product or digested genomic dna on a UV transilluminator for too long the dna signal gets weaker and eventually vanishes partly due to UV light breaking the dna into smaller fragments
The energy in each photon increases as the frequency of the radiation increases. Visible light photons have enough energy to be used to trigger chemical reactions, such as those involved in seeing, and in photosynthesis. At higher frequencies, such as Ultra-violet photons, x-ray photons and gamma ray photons, they each have enough energy to break DNA in one go, and do so.
radio, microwaves, terrahertz and infra-red photons do not have enough energy to break a DNA bond in one go, so usually do not cause DNA damage except when lots of photons make it too hot.
Hi,
Thanks for the interesting question.
Thanks for the interesting question. ethe effect of radiation (especially solar radiation) on bacteria and genes.
With my best regards!
Dr. Adel OUESLATI
I did some literature survey on the subject sometimes back and here are some findings which I remember:
1. Various experiments carried out in Germany showed that if eggs are exposed to high power radiations, there are mutations and chickens born have bodily defects.
2. Low power radiations are not very damaging but if there are resonance effects, low power radiations can be very harmful.
3. R. W. P. King did some early modelling of biological cell and how effective is penetration of Microwave radiations.
4. Various reports indicate that even if there are no mutations people living near mobile towers, high tension power cables have various complaints of headache, mood swings etc.
It depends on which category of radiation (non-ionizing and ionizing radiation). Ionizing radiation has enough energy to ionize an atom or molecules. Therefore, it has the capacity to damage the DNA. Whereas, non-ionizing radiation such as microwave and radio frequency do not have enough energy to move charges. Thus, it cannot alter the DNA.
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