The Use of a Micronucleus Test in Pinus pallasiana D. Don and Picea abies (L.) Karst. for the Assessment of Technogenic Pollution’s Influence

Abstract

Results of the study on the frequency of micronuclei (MN) in the meristem of Pinus pallasiana D. Don and Picea abies (L.) Karst. seedlings from natural populations and plantings of technogenically polluted territories are presented. The level of cells with MN was 0.95 ± 0.13% in the control P. pallasiana population. An increase in the level of cells with MN was observed under introduction- and technogenic-pollution conditions (2.41–3.38%). Similar results were shown for P. abies. The pathological cell contained a different amount of MN (from one to two for P. pallasiana and from one to six for P. abies). The size of MN varied from 0.13 to 14.93% of the diameter of the main nuclei in P. pallasiana cells and from 0.07 to 61.87% in P. abies cells. Multinucleated cells and cells with an irregular-shaped nucleus were observed. Correlation dependence between cytogenetic disorders and MN frequency (r = 0.98) was established. The use of MN of seedlings of studied species for the assessment of the genotoxicity of technogenically polluted areas was proposed.