Pretreatment of Vicia faba main root meristems with ethidium bromide (EB) or nalidixic acid (NA) significantly reduced the yield of metaphases with chromatid aberrations induced by maleic hydrazide (MH), i.e., triggered clastogenic adaptation to MH. No such protection occurred when the alkylating agent triethylenemelamine (TEM) was used for challenge treatment. The differential response of pretreated cells to MH on the one hand (protection) and to TEM (no protection) on the other supports the conclusion that clastogenic adaptation is due to different inducible (repair?) functions, which eventually exert protection against clastogenic impacts.
Chromatids Chromosome Aberrations