Use of Tradescantia clone 4430 for direct long-term soil mutagenicity studies.

Soil mutagens permanently and directly affect terrestrial plants, soil microorganisms and invertebrates and indirectly impact vertebrate and human populations. However, the dynamic response to soil mutagens under conditions of long-term exposure has been studied insufficiently. The clonal nature of Tradescantia #4430 and the well-developed associated test systems for evaluation of genotoxicity allow investigation of the permanent effects of direct exposure to the soil not only on plants of the same genotype, but even with the same individual plants, as was done in the present study.