Genotoxicity assessment of atrazine and some major metabolites in the Ames test.

Abstract

The objectives of these experiments were to examine atrazine and several of its know major metabolites in plants in the Salmenella typhimurium mutagenicity assay using three bacterial strains. The compounds were tested in high purity and at a range of doses to help clarify some of the results obtained by other laboratories, and to identify the actual atrazine mutagenic metabolite suggested by other researchers. In studies of the mutagenic potential of s-triazine herbicides, various assay systems have been employed and the compounds tested varied in purity from commercially formulated products to high purity compounds. Consequently, results concerning the mutagenic potential of these compounds have also varied. In contrast to the negative genotoxic effects found for s-triazines in microbial assays, several positive effects have been found when s-triazines have been activated via plant metabolism. The authors were not aware of any published report evaluating the mutagenic potential of this herbicide and its major metabolites in a single genotoxicity assay.