The Genetic and Epigenetic Bases of Cellular Response to Ionizing Radiation

Ionizing radiation (IR) is a severe DNA-damaging agent, which can induce extensive genomic instability and lead to serious consequences for cells and organisms, including cancer. IR can also determine hereditary effects and radiation-induced diseases thus representing a major concern for human population health. IR affects a very large number of processes in the cellular environment and can cause changes in gene expression, hamper functions of cellular organelles, induce cell cycle arrest, and lead to apoptotic cell death. The outcomes of these responses primarily depend upon the level and type of radiation as well as the genetic background of the irradiated cell or organism and epigenetic factors. This is particularly important when also the potential long-term effects of IR-induced genomic instability (i.e., transgenerational effects) are considered.

In this Research Topic we welcome Original Research papers and Reviews describing how the genetic landscape of a cell and/or organism can influence the response to IR, the contribution of the dose or dose rate on determining IR-induced genomic instability, and the roles played by epigenetic modifications (i.e., DNA methylation, histone modifications and ncRNAs) in the inheritance of transgenerational effects.