Gamma irradiation of herbarium material

[Michael Chamberland]

At 10:29 AM 5/10/2000 +1000, you wrote:
>The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service has decided to gamma
>irradiate all returning herbarium loans and loan requests from overseas
>sources entering Australia. Currently these items are heat treated at
>60-70 deg C. My question is, does gamma irradiation affect  DNA in >dried
plant specimens?

And does gamma irradiation do bad things to metal content on the herbarium
sheet (paper clips, pinned packets, mercuric insecticidal substances, or
those supertags if anyone is using them)?

Michael