Comparing cytogenetic effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields in Brassica napus L and Zea mays L

Many biological effects of exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields(ELF-EMFs) have been documented, but little work carried out on plants. A meiotic study wasperformed on Brassica napus L as C3 plant and Zea mays L as a C4 plant exposed to electromagneticfields. Our investigations were focused on plants grown from wet pretreated seeds with3 and 10 mT for a 4 h exposure time and compared with the control plants of maize. Also ourinvestigation used plants grown from dry pretreated seeds with 10 mT for 4 h, wet pretreatedseeds with 10 mT for 2 h, and a control line of canola. A significant difference was observedfor meiotic characters studied among treatments. In canola the mean value of total, terminal,and intercalary chiasmata reduced significantly in plants grown from exposed seeds, indicatingthat EMFs caused reduction in the mean value of the genetic recombination. Other meioticcharacteristics including ring bivalent and quadrivalent formation reduced significantly as well.In maize the mean value of total, terminal and intercalary chiasmata changed significantly in theplants grown from exposed seeds to 3 mT intensity, indicating increase in genetic recombination.Moreover, formation of ring bivalent and quadrivalent increased significantly.All results suggested these plants react differently in some aspects against EMFs as abioticstress.