Investigation of presence and impact of radiation-induced bystander effect in Acheta domesticus

Abstract

Purpose

Radiation-induced bystander effect (RIBE), a non-targeted effect of ionizing radiation in which non-irradiated individuals behave as if they have been irradiated after interactions with irradiated individuals, has been well documented in vertebrates. However, little research has been done investigating RIBE in terrestrial insects, this paucity of invertebrate RIBE leads to lack of knowledge on invertebrates living in fallout and exclusion zones. This paper aims to better understand the impacts of RIBE on terrestrial insects.

Methods and materials: House crickets who have interacted with irradiated crickets were examined to investigate population effects of ionizing radiation exposure to better understand RIBE in insects.

Results

The results demonstrated RIBE in crickets and found that cohabitated males had higher growth rate (mg/day) when compared to non-cohabitated males. Further, cohabitated males and females matured significantly faster with no significant difference in maturation weight than non-cohabitated populations. Experiment with adult irradiated crickets found saturability of bystander signals and similar shifts in maturation parameters. These results highlight that bystander signals can impacted development and maturation in crickets.

Conclusion

Given long-term impacts of RIBE in insects, these results may have significant implications for interactions between insects inhabiting fringe nuclear exclusion zones and those outside of it.

Keywords:

• Radiation-induced bystander effect
• insect model organisms
• bystander effects

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor change. This change do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Katie Pelletier for her help in the statistical analysis and figures of the data, without whom I’d still be stuck on google trying to generate a simple boxplot.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

CM is funded by the Canadian NSERC Discovery Grant 660340. CM and CBS are funded by an Alliance Grant sponsored by NSERC and Candu Owners’ Group (COG) 20016788.

Notes on contributors

Xiaobing Li

Xiaobing Li is a researcher in the Department of Biology at McMaster University. His interests are impacts of whole-body radiation on invertebrates.

Colin B. Seymour

Colin B. Seymour is a professor in the Department of Biology at McMaster University. His interests are in mechanisms of low-dose radiation effects.

Carmel Mothersill

Carmel Mothersill is a radiobiologist and Canada Research Chair in Radiobiology at McMaster University. Her main interest is in low-dose effects of radiation on biota.

C. David Rollo

C. David Rollo is professor emeritus in the Department of Biology at McMaster University. His interests span evolution, ecology, and physiology, particularly aging.