The effects of vacuum-UV radiation (50-190nm) on microorganisms and DNA.

Early difficulties with the light source in the study of vacuum-UV effects on biological materials were overcome largely by the introduction of the synchrotron radiation source in 1977. Highly monochromatic vacuum-UV radiation has been used to obtain action spectra of various biological targets in the range 50-190 nm. Bacillus subtilis spores were particularly suitable because of their inherent tolerance to vacuum, and action spectra for inactivation were measured down to 50 nm. Action spectra for DNA strand breaks were also measured in the same range with isolated plasmid DNA. Studies are in progress of vacuum-UV induced molecular changes in nucleic acids and their model compounds, especially of chain scission and base modification.