Micronuclei and Mercury

Genomic integrity is a new 'big picture' concept to aid public health efforts and basically includes all the molecular genetic details of cells! So many things we commonly choose to do can impact genomic integrity, also potentially affecting future generations!

Pollution that we can rarely choose to avoid is a key problem affecting genomic integrity. For instance, mercury, like that which pollutes many areas where gold mining is pursued (legally or illegally).

One way to measure effects of mercury pollution in cells is the micronucleus assay.