Transgenic Plants for Environmental Biomonitoring: New Perspectives

  • Olga Kovalchuk
  • Barbara Hohn
  • Igor Kovalchuk
Chapter

Abstract

Modern socio-economic development is often associated with a heavy load of radioactive and chemical contamination of the biosphere. Sources of radiation exposure are almost ubiquitous in our environment due to the growing production of radioactive waste, nuclear tests and accidents in nuclear power plants that lead to the release of radioactive material into the environment. Along with radioactive pollution there exists the problem of chemical contamination. Large territories all over the world are contaminated by wastes of the chemical and petroleum industries. Soils and drinking water supplies are polluted with heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead, copper and others as well as with toxic organic compounds. As a result, living organisms suffer from the cumulative effect of various environmental pollutants — powerful forces that are continuously shaping the genomes of all species

Keywords

Environment contamination radiation heavy metals transgenic plants mutation recombination biomonitoring 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2003

Authors and Affiliations

  • Olga Kovalchuk
    • 1
  • Barbara Hohn
    • 2
  • Igor Kovalchuk
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Biological SciencesUniversity of LethbridgeLethbridgeCanada
  2. 2.Friedrich Miescher InstitutBaselSwitzerland

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