Biological effects of carbon ion beams with various LETs on budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

It has been established that irradiation with higher linear energy transfer (LET) increases lethality and mutagenicity more than that with lower LET. However, the characteristics specific to carbon ion beam have not yet been elucidated. Yeast cells were irradiated with carbon ions with an LET of 13 or 50 keV/μm, and cell survival and mutation frequency were analyzed. The results, combined with our previous findings for ions with an LET of 107 keV/μm, demonstrated that, in conjunction with an increase in LET, cell survival decreased, while mutation frequency increased. This indicates that a carbon ion beam with a higher LET is more mutagenic than one with a lower LET.