Production of Mutations in Drosophila using Four Aryl-2-halogenoalkylamines

Abstract

AFTER study of the cytotoxic effects of a long series of aryl-2-halogenoalkylamines¹, Haddow, Kon and Ross, with P. C. Koller and S. Revell, have related these effects to chromosome injury and have, in addition, proved a number of these compounds to be carcinogenic. In view of these findings, it became of interest to test whether some of these compounds could induce germinal mutations in Drosophila, similar to those obtained by Auerbach² with mustard gas and related compounds. Several of these aromatic nitrogen mustards have given encouraging results in preliminary tests using the Walker rat carcinoma as test object, and four of them have now been tested for mutagenic action on Drosophila melanogaster: NN-Di-(2-chloroethyl)-p-toluidine (I) NN-Di-(2-chloroethyl)-p-anisidine (II) β-Naphthyldi- (2-chloroethyl)-amine (III) β-Naphthyldi-(2-chloropropyl)-amine (IV) (mixture of isomers)