Transgenerational transmission of radiationinduced genomic instability and predisposition to carcinogenesis
The paper deals with a history of radiobiological investigations carried out at the Center since 1925 which have contributed to the present-day conception on the influence of damaged DNA on stochastic (carcinogenesis) and non-stochastic (accelerated aging) late radiation pathology in exposed biological objects. A phenomenological and pathogenetic similarity of somatic (in irradiated organisms) and genetic (in progeny of irradiated parents) consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation is suggested and our data are presented pointing to a possibility of germ cells of irradiated parents to transmit genomic instability to the progeny thus increasing risk of carcinogenesis.