Studies on the mutagenic action of formaldehyde in Drosophila

Summary

Drosophila males were exposed to a sublethal concentration of cyanide gas prior to the injection of formaldehyde solutions. Compared to the controls which only received formaldehyde the frequency of sex-linked lethals was increased after the cyanide pretreatment in altogether six independent experiments. These results are taken as further proof that formaldehyde exerts at least part of its mutagenic effects via the formation of peroxides. It is suggested that an excessive amount of hydrogen peroxide, due to inhibition of the cytochrome and catalase enzyme systems, favours the formation of a mutagenic, organic peroxide, presumably dihydroxydimethyl peroxide. The fact that formaldehyde exerts an inhibiting effect on catalase in its own right might be of importance for the interpretation of its mutagenic action.

It was also observed that after cyanide pretreatment, the mutagenic effectiveness of a mixture of formaldehyde and hydrogen peroxide was lower than that of formaldehyde alone. These findings can be interpreted by assuming that high concentrations of dihydroxydimethyl peroxide or of a combination of cyanide and this peroxide, eliminate selectively germ cells with induced mutations. It is possible that the same explanation applies to the low mutagenic effectiveness of a mixture of formaldehyde and hydrogen peroxide compared with that of formaldehyde alone when both are preceded by cyanide.