Am. Mujumdar et al., GENOTOXICITY ASSESSMENT OF THE ANTIFUNGAL ANTIBIOTIC AUREOFUNGIN IN SALMONELLA-TYPHIMURIUM AND SWISS ALBINO MICE, MUTATION RESEARCH, 321(1-2), 1994, pp. 13-17
The widely used agricultural antifungal agent aureofungin (ARF) was su
bjected to genotoxicity assessment using the Ames Salmonella assay as
well as the in vivo micronucleus test and dominant lethal test in Swis
s mice. In the Ames Salmonella spot test, ARF slightly elevated the nu
mber of histidine revertants after metabolic activation over a wide do
se range (1-1000 mug/plate) in TA102 but not in TA97a, TA98 or TA100.
In the preincubation plate incorporation assay with TA102, ARF increas
ed the number of revertants in a dose-dependent manner only after meta
bolic activation. ARF failed to significantly elevate the frequency of
micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (PE) in the bone marrow of
Swiss mice. It elevated the frequency of dominant lethal mutations in
the 7th and 8th weeks at 30 mg/kg body weight, a concentration much hi
gher than the actual concentration used in the field. We conclude that
ARF is non-mutagenic in somatic cells in vivo at doses used in the pr
esent study, probably mutagenic in stem-cell spermatogonia and may be
classified as an equivocal promutagen, possibly acting as a cross-link
er.