Seeds in Chernobyl

Despite the magnitude of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, plants continues to grow and reproduce in the radio-contaminated soil.  Although there has been more than 80 years of research addressing the effects of ionizing radiation on plants, the ongoing success of plants in the Chernobyl was not anticipated.  The aim of this website is to disseminate the data from on-going study of the seeds harvested from plants grown in radioactive and non-radioactive experimental fields established in the Chernobyl area.

The radioactive field (A) is located near village Chystogalivka, 5 km from Nuclear Power Plant,
next to town Prypiať that is inside of exclusion zone (circled).  The non-radioactive field (B) is
localized directly in Chernobyl town, in the area that was remediated from radioactive contaminants.

The picture shows the entrance to our radioactive field.

Harvested seeds are analyzed by state-of-the-art analytical method called proteomics.
The outputs of these analyses are the abundances of hundreds of seed proteins.  These
abundances are then compared between the seeds harvested from non-radioactive and
radioactive Chernobyl experimental fields.  This information is used to understand molecular
mechanisms during plant growth in the environment with permanently increased levels of
ionizing radiation.

Cite "Seeds in Chernobyl":

Klubicová K, Vesel M, Rashydov NM, Hajduch M. 2012. Seeds in Chernobyl: the database on proteome response on radioactive environment.   Front Plant Sci. 3:231

The project is/was supported by these scientific grant agencies:

• 2013-2017 - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612587
• 2012-2015 - Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV), APVV-0740-11
• 2011-2013 - Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and the Academy of Sciences (VEGA), 2/0126/11
• 2007-2011 – Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), MIRG-CT-2007-200165