Plant Protein Levels Adapt to Allow "Flourishing" Near Chernobyl
(p. D3) In April 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine exploded and sent radioactive particles flying through the air, infiltrating the surrounding soil. Despite the colossal disaster, some plants in the area seem to have adapted well, flourishing in the contaminated soil.This ability to adapt has to do with slight alterations in the plants' protein levels, researchers report in a study that appears in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
"If you visit the area, you'd never think anything bad had happened there," said Martin Hajduch, one of the study's authors and a plant geneticist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Slovakia.
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(Note: the online version of the article is dated September 20, 2010.)
