Ionizing radiation
Ionization-induced DNA strand breaks
Also searched as Ionization-induced DNA strand breaks.
You want it minimized: this is the only band in the family carrying enough energy to break a strand outright, and the damage is counted in the cells of people whose work exposes them to it.
In depth
Radiation energetic enough to strip electrons from atoms and break DNA strands outright — medical imaging, radiotherapy, radon, cosmic and occupational sources. It is the exposure in this family whose damage is counted directly in human cells: chromosome fragments in the blood of people whose work exposes them to it.
What it drives
It increases Radiation exposure.
Taxonomic edge: ionizing radiation is a form of radiation exposure. Gated on the human occupational-exposure evidence. Verbatim: “The mean micronucleated binucleated cell rate was significantly higher in the industrial radiographers than in the controls (10.7 per thousand vs 6.6 per thousand, P=0.009).”. PMID 12438002 · PMC10509213
It increases DNA integrity.
A mechanistic link, resting on double-strand-break and micronucleus evidence. Verbatim: “the betaD was reduced by 27 %, 36 %, and 47 %... a decrease by 39 %, 52 %, and 80 % of the amount of non-DSB cluster damage.”. PMID 39674631
It increases Oxidative stress.
Radiolysis of cellular water generates hydroxyl radicals, the indirect damage pathway of ionizing radiation. PMID 35028001
It increases Damage checkpoint.
Double-strand breaks activate ATM kinase, which phosphorylates and stabilizes p53. doi 10.1002/hep4.1815
It increases Cell turnover.
p53-dependent apoptosis is the canonical cell-death response to radiation injury. PMID 39027706
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.