215T Poster - Population Genetics
Thursday June 09, 9:15 PM - 10:00 PM

Authors:
Sophia Tintori ¹; Patrick Ortiz ¹; Maxim Ivanenko ²; Igor Chyzhevskyi ³; Timothy Mousseau ⁴; Matthew Rockman ¹

Affiliations:
1) Department of Biology and Center for Genomics & Systems Biology, New York University, NY, NY; 2) Schmalzhausen Institute of Zoology, Kiev, Ukraine; 3) Department of Coordination of International Projects of the State Specialized Enterprise "Ecocentre", Kiev, Ukraine; 4) Department of Biological Sciences, Univeristy of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Keywords:
Molecular Evolution

Background ionizing radiation is a ubiquitous environmental carcinogen, but it is rarely considered dangerous thanks in part to our DNA repair mechanisms. Like all heritable traits, DNA repair genes can vary between individuals, both in sequence and expression (often considered in the context of individuals' differing genetic predispositions to cancer). Our approach to studying the extent and impact of natural variation in DNA repair components is to compare radiation-tolerant wild strains to radiation-sensitive strains of the same species, interrogating the differences in their genetics and their cellular dynamics in response to chronic radiation exposure.

In search of such radiation-tolerant animals, we have collected nematodes from the fruits and soils of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a landscape altered by contamination from the world's largest nuclear power plant accident 36 years ago. We have recovered and cryopreserved 298 nematode isolates, and are investigating 15 strains of Oscheius tipulae, isolated from sites ranging in ambient radiation levels. Long-read sequencing and de novo assembly of these 15 animals' genomes, compared to O. tipulae from other parts of the world, reveal heritable mutations characteristic of increased double strand break repair.