CYTOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF GARLIC ROOT-TIP CELLS TO SOME CIGARETTE-SMOKE CONSTITUENTS

There has been a strong desire among many who are devoted to the problem of tobacco smoke and its effects on human health to perfect a bioassay technique for cigarette smoke and its constituents so as to test their biological effects on living cells and tissues. Tobacco smoke is known to include a number of polycyclic aromatic compounds (Stedman 1968). Some of these are now known to be carcinogenic as determined by mouse skin bioassay technique (Wynder and Hoffman 1967). Nevertheless the vast majority of the chemical constituents of tobacco smoke have not been assayed, largely due to the time and expense involved in mouse skin bioassay procedure (Van Duuren 1975). In this investigation, the mitotic events in root-tip cells of garlic (A llium sativum; family Liliaceae) were studied in an attempt to determine the feasibility of utilizing plant material in ascertaining the biological effects of selected cigarette constituents. Earlier work in this laboratory with cigarette smoke (Arnold et al. 1976) and smoke constituents, (Bhalla et al. 1974), demonstrated induction of mitotic abnormalities in cells of root-tip. The present investigation confirms earlier observations and is of a more comprehensive nature. It deals with the individual and combined effects of 1- and 2-naphthonitrile on cell division and chromosomes of root-tip cells of garlic. © 1978, Japan Mendel Society, International Society of Cytology. All rights reserved.