HZE particle effects in space

Among the various particulate components of ionizing radiation in space, heavy ions (the so-called HZE particles) have been of special concern to radiobiologists. To understand the ways by which HZE particles of cosmic radiation interact with biological systems, methods have been developed to precisely localize the trajectory of an HZE particle relative to the biological object and to correlate the physical data of the particle with the biological effects observed along its path. In a variety of test systems, injuries were traced back to the traversal of a single HZE particle, such as somatic mutations, and chromosomal aberrations in plant seeds, development disturbances and malformations in insect and salt shrimp embryos, or cell death in bacterial spores. In the latter case, a long-ranging killing effect around the particle's track was observed. Whereas, from spaceflight experiments, substantial infomation has been accumulated on single HZE particle effects in resting systems and in a few embryonic systems, there is a paucity of data on cosmic radiation effects in whole tissues or animals, especially mammalians.