Affiliations: [a] Faculty of Health Science, Juntendo University, Japan | [b] Faculty of Food and Health Sciences, Showa Women’s University, Japan | [c] Neutron Beam Technology Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, RIKEN3, Japan | [d] Institute for Environmental and Gender-Specific Medicine, Juntendo University, Japan | [e] Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokuriku University, Japan | [f] Institute of Health and Sports Science & Medicine, Juntendo University, Japan
Abstract: One of the major challenges in deep space exploration are effects of cosmic rays on human body and soft error, but equally important are their effects on food resources. In this study, we focused on neutrons as the secondary particle in the deep space environment and investigated how they affect food resources. Fast neutron was irradiated by the RIKEN Accelerator-driven compact Neutron Source (RANS) on meat sample. Biochemical analysis was conducted to present concrete effects of cosmic rays on food in deep space environment. Oxidative and nitrative modifications of proteins were detected by the electrophoresis and Western blotting. The result shows that nitrative modification of tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid in protein, tended to increase with increasing neutron dose.
Keywords: Neutron irradiation, cosmic ray, deep space environment, food, oxidative and nitrative modification of proteins
