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Chuck Turick

I agree that the research on the radiation protection properties of melanin and the ability of microorganisms to actually grow better in the presence of radiation is just incredibly interesting. There is one aspect of the work that has been overlooked. Melanin bleaches. The very intense oxidizing conditions produced by ionizing radiation could play havoc on melanogenic fungi. One question I had was, why aren’t fungi that are exposed to long-term radiation bleach-blondes? Recently I had the pleasure to work with Kate Dadachova and Arturo Casadevall to explore this question. We showed that melanin has a self-healing property when exposed to an electrical potential (Bioelectrochemistry. 82:69-73.). In other words, the radiation can oxidize the melanin and the fungi may in turn counter that by reducing the melanin, possibly through electron transfer. Since, melanin pigments could serve as terminal electron acceptors for growth in microorganisms (Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68:2436–2444.), it may be that fungi grow better in radiation fields by using melanin as a “bottomless pit” for electrons.

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