Genetic effects of space hadrons on bacteriophage under Alpine conditions

A dried film culture of bacteriophage T4Br + was kept in a lead bioblock for 366 days under Alpine conditions at an altitude of 6100 m above sea level to study the genetic effect of space hadrons. In the gelatin-like film under study we discovered some film plots with markedly reduced bacteriophage survival. In such plots, the mutation frequency exceeded the spontaneous background mutation rate 60-100 times. The spectrum of r mutations as classified into standard groups rI, rII and rIII differed from that found for other model radiation systems such as gamma-ray radiation in buffer or nutrient broth, and hadron and HZE particle radiation under space flight conditions. Reversion analysis of 159 rII mutants showed that 54.4% had small and elongated deletions, 23.16% had point mutations, and 22.5% of all the mutants had both small deletion and point mutations.