Testing the soil mutagen pollution of Orel's railway district using Arabidopsis thaliana

The genotoxicity of 10 soil samples was studied from various locations in the Railway district of Orel city (Russia). Arabidopsis thaliana was used to assess the genotoxicity of soils. The rates of sterile ovules, embryonic dominant lethal (sicca, brevis, vana, diffusa, murca, parva, fusca) and recessive chlorophyll lethal (albina, chlorina, xantha) mutations were determined in plants grown on soil samples. These data were compared with control plants that were grown on conditionally clean soil. Individual mutation frequencies in each phenotypic class did not have statistically significant differences from the control. The total frequencies of the embryonic dominant lethal mutations were higher than the control value in plants grown on soil in 9 samples. The total frequencies of recessive chlorophyll mutations were higher than the control value in 6 samples. The frequency of sterile ovules, statistically significantly higher than the frequency in the control sample, was found in plants grown in one of 10 analyzed samples. Comparison of the total values of all investigated anomalies in each sample with the control value showed a statistically significant increase in the frequency of anomalies in plants grown on 5 soil samples. These data indicate that some places in the Railway district of Orel city have a high level of the soil chemical pollution.