Abstract Synthetic food dyes have garnered significant attention due to potential health risks, including cytotoxicity, allergenicity, and even carcinogenicity observed in animal models. Given the widespread use of artificial food dyes in the food industry and potential concerns regarding their safety, this investigation could explore the influence of a lemon-flavored food dye on Allium cepa L.. Onion root tip meristems were exposed to various concentrations (0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2%) of food dye in aqueous solutions for 24 hours at room temperature. A concentration-dependent detrimental effect was observed on all evaluated morphological parameters, including root number, root length, dry weight, and wet weight, with the control group exhibiting the highest values and the 2% treatment group displaying the lowest. Mitotic analysis revealed normal cell division in the control group, but increasing food dye concentrations induced a spectrum of chromosomal aberrations, suggesting disruption of spindle fibers and chromosome cohesion defects. The control group displayed the highest mitotic index (MI) of 9.2, with a positive correlation observed between increasing food dye concentration and the frequency of mitotic abnormalities (0.3 in control vs. 16.8 at 2% treatment). The most prevalent abnormality was multipolar anaphase (5.4 at 2% treatment), while anaphase bridge displayed the lowest incidence (1.7 at 2% treatment). This is evidenced by the significant decrease in root growth parameters (length and number) and (MI), a key indicator of cell division activity. Furthermore, the observed chromosomal aberrations, including sticky metaphase, C-mitosis, laggard chromosomes, anaphase bridges, and multipolar anaphase, are strong indicators of potential genotoxicity. Keywords Allium cepa L; Cytotoxicity; Synthetic food dye; Mito-depressive effect; Mitotic index

Trichothecene T2 is a mycotoxin from the Fusarium species. This research aims to test the effect of the Trichothecene T2 toxin on mitotic index% (M.I.%) and induction of mitotic aberrations by using the Allium sativum (garlic) test system. The toxin concentrations in ppm were 0.00, 0.30, 0.60, 0.90, and 1.20 for 12 hours. The garlic roots were then cut, and mitotic slides were prepared using squash and examined under a light microscope. The results revealed that the mycotoxin has a significant mitodepressive effect at all concentrations compared to the control, and the MI% reduction was proportional to increasing toxin concentration. The highest reduction in mitotic index was observed in the 1.2 ppm treatment. Moreover, this mycotoxin induced and increased the rate of mitotic abnormalities% (MA%) with increasing the mycotoxin concentration. The observed mitotic abnormalities were star-shaped anaphase, sticky metaphase, C-mitosis, sticky anaphase, depolarization, micronuclei, laggard chromosomes, anaphase bridges, and chromosome loss. The least frequently observed abnormality was micronuclei compared to the most frequent aberration, laggard chromosomes. The total mitotic abnormalities significantly increased with increasing the toxin dose concentration. These results suggest that this mycotoxin can inhibit the mitotic activity of the meristematic cells; it is mutagenic and can disrupt the spindle fibers' activity of the dividing cells at all concentrations, especially at higher doses in food. Therefore, the foods must be tested for fungi producing this mycotoxin. Keywords: Mycotoxin; mitodepressive; root tip; spindle fibers; mutagenic

Potassium acetate is a food additive used for preserving and regulating acidity (buffering agent) of processed food. The continuous use of food additives in our various foodstuffs made it necessary to test their possible toxicity. This research aims to test the cytogenotoxic effects of the food additive potassium acetate (E261) by using Allium cepa test system. The parameters tested were: root length, root number, mitotic index, and mitotic abnormalities. The concentrations of potassium acetate were: 0,00% (control), 0,05%, 0,10%, 0.15% 0,20%, and 0,25%. The onions were incubated in different concentrations of potassium acetate for 72 hours. The roots were then taken and spread on a microscopic slide by squash method. The results showed that the tested food additive had a positive effect on root length, root number, and mitotic index at 0.05%. However, it had mitodepressive effect at higher concentrations and also decreased root length and root number as compared to the control. Total mitotic abnormalities increased with increasing the food additive concentration. The different mitotic abnormalities observed were laggard chromosomes, C-mitosis, multipolar anaphase, sticky metaphase, binucleate, sticky anaphase, and micronuclei. The highest effect of the test material was observed at 0.25% potassium acetate. These results suggest that this food additive is mutagenic and can be harmful if used in high concentrations in food.

Background: Many ethnic groups live in the northern part of Iraq which represents the Iraqi part of Kurdistan. Short tandem repeats are widely used in population genetics and forensic science. Objective: This research aims to analyze the Y-chromosomal STR markers of two ethnic groups living in Iraqi Kurdistan, Yezidi, and Chaldean groups. Methodology: Samples of peripheral blood from a total of 44 unrelated males (22 for each ethnic group) were taken. DNA was extracted by using a DNA Extraction kit and analyzed for eight Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-GATA-H4, Y-GATA-C4, DYS458, DYS456, DYS448, DYS437, DYS392, and DYS19). Then, the PCR products were run on 10% polyacrylamide gel and stained by silver nitrate. The results were analyzed by Power marker V3.25 and the dendrogram was created by Mega X software. Results: The highest diversity was observed at Y-GATA-C4 (GD: 0.81) while the lowest diversity was observed at DYS456 (GD: 0.64) in the Yezidi group. In the Chaldean group, DYS458 (GD: 0.88) was the most diverse, while the least diverse marker was Y-GATA-H4 (GD:0.66). The marker Y-GATA-C4 was found to be the most informative marker in both groups with a PIC value of 0.8605. Conclusions: The study confirmed the high discrimination ability of the Y-chromosomal STRs analysis and provided a dataset on these two ethnic groups of Iraqi Kurdistan. The dendrogram of Yezidi and Chaldean datasets reveals that the Yezidi individuals are more closely related to each other as compared to the Chaldean group because intermarriage among Yezidi people is more than that among the Chaldean individuals.

Aflatoxins are mycotoxins found as a foodstuff contaminant, but some of them are seen to increase cancer risk. Aflatoxins are the most potent natural toxin recognized. The sperm shape and chromosomal aberration test were used to investigate the effect of aflatoxin on albino male mice. The aim of this research is to assess the cytogenetic and sperm toxic effects of aflatoxin in albino male mice in vivo. The doses used were (control, 10, 20, and 30) mg/kg/bw for 24 hours. Our results reveal that aflatoxin can cause a range of chromosomal malformations like chromatid break without fragment, ring chromosomes, dicentric chromosomes, centromeric break, chromatid gap, and fragment chromosomes the abnormalities increased from 5 in control to 62.2 in 30mg/kg. and sperm abnormalities in male albino mice subjected to various doses were hookless, headless, tailless, defective head, long and broad hook, folded head, folded tail, and sperm with double tail, increasing the dose concentration enhanced the rate of it when compared to untreated mice from17.6 in control to 136.4 in the highest dose.

Effect of the synthetic food colorant brilliant blue FCF was tested on Allium cepa root tip meristematic cells. The concentrations of brilliant blue FCF used were: zero% (control), 50 mg/L, 100 mg/L, 300 mg/L, and 500 mg/L with two different time of exposure: 10, and 20 hours. The results revealed that increasing the dose concentration resulted in the inhibition of root growth up to 78.67% at 500 mg/L of brilliant blue FCF. The mitotic index decreased with increasing the concentration of the tested material and increasing exposure period from 8.95% in the control to 3.34% in 500 mg/L for 10 hours and from 9.44% in control to 2.95% in 500 mg/L for 20 hours. The mitotic abnormalities like laggard chromosomes, C-mitosis, multipolar anaphase, sticky metaphase, star-shaped anaphase, sticky anaphase, chromosome loss, chromosome fragments, and disturbed anaphase were increased with increasing brilliant blue FCF concentration and increasing time of exposure as compared with the control. The total abnormal cells were zero in the control group increased to 54 in 500 mg/L concentration after 10 hours, this value increased to 99 after 20 hours of treatment.

Background: The Iraqi Kurdistan local population involves more than eight gatherings of tenants. The Muslim Kurds make up most of the population and after that the Yezidi Kurds. Alternate gatherings incorporate Armenians, Assyrian, Chaldea, Syriacs, and little minority of Arab and Turkmen individuals. Methods: A total of 36 unrelated males from the two population groups in Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurds and Arabs were analyzed for eight Y-chromosome STRs (DYS19, DYS392, DYS437, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635 and Y-GATA-H4). Total DNA from blood cells was extracted using DNA extraction Kit. Results: A number of genetic parameters such as mean number of alleles, allele frequency, gene diversity, polymorphic information content (PIC), and genetic distance were calculated using Power Marker V3.25 software. The DYS458 had the highest diversity (GD: 0.883), while loci DYS456 and Y-GATA-H4 had the lowest (GD: 0.574). The Dendrogram separated the populations into two main clades, the Kurd group and the Arab group except in one case only from the whole population. Conclusions: This study confirms the discriminating power of high-resolution Y-STR typing and provides first primary dataset on Iraqi Kurdistan samples. The comparison of Kurdish and Arab datasets reveals an interesting overall picture of isolation of Kurdish group. The primers DYS19, DYS448, DYS458, and DYS635 can be considered the best for their high PIC power.