A FORMULA TO PREDICT THE TRANSMISSION FREQUENCY OF ACENTRIC FRAGMENTS

1 Laboratory of Radiobiology, University of California, San Francisco, California 94122

A formula, based on the Poisson distribution of radiation-induced chromosomal deletions, was derived to predict the frequency of transmission of acentric fragments between subsequent mitoses. The frequency of deletions observed in the ith + 1 division subsequent to fragment distribution at the ith division anaphase is independent of the cell death resulting from fragment loss. Further, the transmission frequency of chromosome acentric fragments is mathematically equal to the fragment frequency observed in the ith + 1 generation divided by the mean fragment frequency in the ith generation. The formula was also extended to chromatid deletions.

Submitted on August 15, 1972