Effects of K-shell X-ray absorption of intracellular phosphorus on yeast cells

The effects of K-shell absorption of phosphorus atoms on yeast cells were investigated using synchrotron X-rays that were tuned to the resonance absorption peak (2153 eV). Three types of cellular effect (cell inactivation, induction of gene conversion at the trp-5 locus, and cell membrane impairment (changes in the permeability] were measured. It was demonstrated that the enhancement factor was 1.4 at the resonance peak regarding both lethality and the induction of gene conversion in reference of off-peak irradiation (2146 and 2160 eV). No difference was found between the two off-peak irradiation energies. No cell membrane impairment was detected, irrespective of the X-ray photon energies employed within the fluence range tested. These results strongly suggest that K-shell X-ray absorption in the resonance mode by cellular phosphorus atoms causes significantly more cellular effects than the off-resonance mode of absorption, probably via some specific changes induced in the phosphates of the DNA strand. Calculations using the number of phosphorus atoms in a defined size of the trp locus (2127 base pairs) on the DNA and the absorption cross-section of the resonance mode of phosphorus showed that gene conversion is inducible at a rate of 0.13 per X-ray photon absorption per locus. These results are discussed regarding the modes of K-shell photoabsorption.