Sensitivity of light-grown and dark-grown Euglena cells to gamma-irradiation

Light-grown cells which contain fully developed chloroplasts were found to be more resistant to gamma-irradiation than dark-grown cells which are devoid of chloroplasts. The radio-resistance of dark-grown cells progressively increased during light-induced development of chloroplasts and, conversely, radio-resistance of light-grown cells decreased progressively with chloroplast de-development during growth in the dark. The presence of chloroplasts seemed to play a major role in the capacity of cells to recover from radiation damage, the efficiency of cellular recovery being correlatable with the degree of chloroplast development.