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Aristolochic acid is mutagenic and recombinogenic in Drosophila genotoxicity tests

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Abstract

Aristolochic acid (AA) has been tested for genotoxic activity in three different assays with Drosophila melanogaster (i–iii). AA induced sex-linked recessive lethals (i) and chromosome losses (ii) in male germ cells. In a newly developed fast assay with somatic cells of larvae (iii), AA induced mutant single spots as well as twin spots. The data indicate that in addition to the mutagenic activity, AA also possesses recombinogenic activity leading to somatic recombination in mitotically active cells. The experimental labor involved to detect the genotoxic activity of AA was lowest with the somatic cell assay.

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Abbreviations

AA:

aristolochic acid

SCE:

sister chromatid exchange

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Author notes

  1. C. B. Hall

    Present address: Department of Genetics, University of the Witwatersrand, 2001, Johannesburg, South Africa

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Toxicology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, University of Zurich, Schorenstrasse 16, CH-8603, Schwerzenbach, Switzerland

    H. Frei, F. E. Würgler, H. Juon, C. B. Hall & U. Graf

Authors
  1. H. Frei
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  2. F. E. Würgler
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  3. H. Juon
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  4. C. B. Hall
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  5. U. Graf
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Additional information

Part of this work was presented as a poster at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Union of the Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology, Freiburg, Switzerland, March 17–18, 1983 (Frei et al. 1983)

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Frei, H., Würgler, F.E., Juon, H. et al. Aristolochic acid is mutagenic and recombinogenic in Drosophila genotoxicity tests. Arch Toxicol 56, 158–166 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00333420

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00333420

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