Statistically Estimated Free Energies of Chromosome Aberration Production from Frequency Data

Janardan and Schaeffer (1977) suggested that the Lagrangian Poisson Distribution (LPD) could be used to estimate the net free energy for the production of induced chromosome aberrations. Using a Markov‐chain model, a formal link between the LPD and the thermodynamic free energy is now provided. It is estimated that the free energy required to produce isochromatid breaks or dicentrics is about 3.67 KJ/mole/aberration and 18.4 KJ/mole, in good agreement with free energy estimates on the formation of DNA.