Abstract
This study was designed to examine the mutagenic specificity of (+)anti‐dibenz[a,j]anthracene 3,4‐diol‐1,2‐epoxide ((+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE) in SOS‐induced repair‐proficient Escherichia coli ES87 (Δ__pro‐lac, strA__)/F′(pro^+^, lacl^Q^, lacl^am26^, lacZΔM 15). The plasmid pUB3, which contains the mutation target gene, supF, was modified with (+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE in vitro (two to five adducts/plasmid) and then transformed into bacteria by electroporation. The spontaneous mutation frequency for unmodified pUB3 in uninduced cells was about 2 x 10^‐6^ and for SOS‐induced cells, about 8 x 10^‐6^. The spontaneous supF^‐^ mutations were primarily insertions, deletions, and frameshifts. The mutation frequency for (+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE‐modified pUB3 was about 8 x 10^‐6^ and about 32 x 10^‐6^ for uninduced cells and SOS‐induced cells, respectively. (+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE induced primarily point mutations in supF in SOS‐induced cells. GC→ transitions were the major mutations observed in SOS‐induced cells (37%). GC→T́ (21%) and GC→C̀ (8.6%) transversion mutations were also observed, whereas mutations at AT base pairs were rare (1.9%). Furthermore, a large number of tandem GC/GC→Ã/AT transition mutations were also observed (about 15% of all mutations in SOS‐induced cells). Taken together, single and tandem GC→Ã mutations accounted for slightly over half (about 51%) of the mutations observed in SOS‐induced cells. These results demonstrated that (+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE was mutagenic in repair‐proficient E. coli; however, unlike other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that induce primarily transversion mutations, (+)anti‐DB[a,j]A‐DE caused mostly GC→Ã transitions.