Hajduch and his colleagues in Ukraine conducted a proteomic study (examining the structureand function of proteins) of the plants and found that the seeds harvested inside the exclusion zone compared favorably with ones grown in non-contaminated soil outside.
The researchers in this study examined the geometric structureand behaviour of one of the rotavirus's surface proteins, called VP4, which plays a key role in binding on to the surface of a target cell, and breaking through its membrane.