THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HYDROPHOBIC INTERACTION IN THE MUTAGENICITY OF ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS

The derivation of new QSAR and the review of published QSAR for the mu tagenicity of a variety of chemicals acting on a variety of bacterial systems uncovers two classes of equations. 12 examples include a term for hydrophobicity and of these 12, 11 require activation either by S9 or cytosolic enzymes for the reduction of nitro compounds. There are 4 examples of direct-acting mutagens which do not require activation. Of these 4, 3 do not contain a term for hydrophobicity. The odd exampl e is that of the sulfonate esters which do not require activation, but contain a term in log P. The hydrophobicity factor is not correlated with the type of bacteria used for the test.