Testing the soil mutagenic pollution of Orel's Soviet district using of Arabidopsis thaliana

The total levels of the soil mutagens contamination was investigated in 10 places of the Orel's Soviet district. The soil mutagenicity was analyzed using Arabidopsis thaliana embryo test. The plants were grown in the laboratory on the soil of the collected samples. Mutations were counted in the fruiting phase with the morphological analysis of embryos in the first three pods from the basal areas of the terminal inflorescences of each plant. The frequencies of the dominant lethal (sicca, brevis, vana, diffusa, murca, parva, fusca) and the recessive chlorophyll (albina, chlorina, xanta) mutations were taken into account. Plants grown on the soil of 9 samples had a statistically significantly smaller number of normally developing embryos. Plants grown on 5 soil samples statistically significantly increased the incidence of embryonic lethal mutations in the pods. These results prove the existence of the soils with a high content of mutagens in Orel's Soviet district.