FREQUENCY AND NATURAL OF SPECIFIC-LOCUS MUTATIONS INDUCED IN FEMALE MICE BY RADIATIONS AND CHEMICALS: A REVIEW

Abstract

The inducibility of heritable mutations in female mammals has been measured in the mouse specific-locus test (SLT). or radiationinduced mutations, a large body of data has been accumulated. owever, relatively few SLT studies in females have been conducted with chemicals. of only 5 chemicals so far explored for their effect in oocytes, two, ethylnitrosourea (ENU) and triethyl nemelamine (TEM), and possibly a third, procarbazine hydrochloride (PRC), are mutagenic with at least one of these (ENU) mutagenic in arrested as well as maturing oocytes. owever, the mutation rate is, in each case, lower than for treated male germ cells. y contrast, ENU-induced mutation yield for the maternal genome of the zygote is an order of magnitude higher than that for the zygote's paternal genome or for spermatogonia. igh proportion of mutants derived from chemical treatment of oocytes are mosaics, probably owing to lesions affecting only one strand of the DNA. haracteristic of specific-locus mutations induced in oocytes is that they include a considerably higher percentage of large (multi-locus) lesions (LLs) than do mutations induced in spermatogonia. or each germ-cell type, the frequency of LLs appears lower for the chemicals so far tested than for radiations.

Citation

Russell, L. AND W. Russell. FREQUENCY AND NATURAL OF SPECIFIC-LOCUS MUTATIONS INDUCED IN FEMALE MICE BY RADIATIONS AND CHEMICALS: A REVIEW. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-93/177.

Additional Information

Mutation Research 296(1/2):107-127, 1992

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