Dose-response relationship for x-ray-induced reciprocal translocations in stem-cell spermatogonia of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta).

The induction of reciprocal translocations in stem-cell spermatogonia of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) was studied after testicular X-irradiation of mature males (50, 100 and 200 rad) or whole-body irradiation of young males (200 and 300 rad). After the recovery of the germinal epithelium, cytogenetic analysis was carried out on spermatocytes descended from irradiated spermatogonia. Preparations of C-banded diakinesis-metaphase I were screened for translocation configurations. The frequencies of aberrations obtained were 0% at 0 rad, 0.36% at 50 rad, 0.86% at 100 rad, 0.99% at 200 rad and 0.68% at 300 rad, suggesting a humped dose-response relationship. There was no evidence for the contribution of a quadratic component to the yield in the lower dose range. A comparison of these results with those obtained for other mammals by a number of investigators shows that the frequencies of translocations in the rhesus monkey are much lower than those published for most other mammalian species.