Also: Chernobyl, Chornobyl, Fukushima, industrial melanism, peppered moth, nylonase, nylon-eating bacteria
Studies of how living things change genetically after nuclear accidents, pollution or new man-made chemicals, from Chernobyl frogs and dogs to moths and nylon-eating bacteria.
Only what the cited papers report.
Values as stated in the cited paper's abstract.
| Property | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Chernobyl dogs genotyped | 302 | Spatola 2023 |
| Estimated date of the carbonaria mutation | ~1819 | Hof 2016 |
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Burraco and Orizaola found Eastern tree frogs inside the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone had much darker backs than frogs outside it, darkest near areas with the highest radiation at the time of the accident; current radiation levels did not seem to affect coloration.
As reported in: Burraco, Orizaola (2022). Ionizing radiation and melanism in Chornobyl tree frogs. Evolutionary Applications. doi:10.1111/eva.13476
Car and colleagues studied 19 Eastern tree frog populations around Chernobyl and found no loss of genetic diversity, higher mitochondrial diversity, and signs of a raised mitochondrial mutation rate and small population sizes.
As reported in: Car, Gilles, Armant et al. (2022). Unusual evolution of tree frog populations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Evolutionary Applications. doi:10.1111/eva.13282
Spatola and colleagues profiled the genomes of 302 free-roaming dogs and found dogs living at the power plant were genetically distinct from those in Chernobyl City, with 15 families, the largest spanning the exclusion zone.
As reported in: Spatola, Buckley, Dillon et al. (2023). The dogs of Chernobyl: Demographic insights into populations inhabiting the nuclear exclusion zone. Science Advances. doi:10.1126/sciadv.ade2537
Hiyama and colleagues found abnormalities in pale grass blue butterflies from the Fukushima area that became more severe in offspring and were inherited, and reproduced similar abnormalities with low-dose radiation exposure in the lab.
Publisher update notice: correction
As reported in: Hiyama, Nohara, Kinjo et al. (2012). The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/srep00570
Okada and colleagues showed that a Flavobacterium breaks down by-products of nylon manufacture using newly evolved enzymes, one of which arose by gene duplication followed by base substitutions.
As reported in: Okada, Negoro, Kimura et al. (1983). Evolutionary adaptation of plasmid-encoded enzymes for degrading nylon oligomers. Nature. doi:10.1038/306203a0
Abstract only
Van't Hof and colleagues found the black (carbonaria) peppered moth form was caused by a jumping gene (transposable element) inserted into the gene cortex, dated to around 1819.
As reported in: Hof, Campagne, Rigden et al. (2016). The industrial melanism mutation in British peppered moths is a transposable element. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature17951
Abstract only
Cook and colleagues analysed Michael Majerus's release of 4,864 moths and found strong bird predation against black moths, enough to explain the decline of black moths in post-industrial Britain.
As reported in: Cook, Grant, Saccheri et al. (2012). Selective bird predation on the peppered moth: the last experiment of Michael Majerus. Biology Letters. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.1136