Effects of Urea on Mitotic Chromosomes of Mice and Onion

抄録

Urea, a common fertilizer used to supplement soil with nitrogen, has been found to cause a seven times increase in the incidence of chromosomal abnormalities like breaks, clumping, pulverisation and polyploidy in albino swiss mice fed with a 500 mg dose for 5 days. The breaks were non-random in their distribution-more common in larger chromosomes, and the middle and distal regions of the chromosomes. The agrochemical could act as a mito-inhibitor (by 21.05% decrease) in onion root-tip cells, where fragmentation of chromosomes was found to be the most common among the abnormalities induced (0.06% in control, 0.80% in treated).