Abstract
To identify environmental carcinogens there is a need for inexpensive and reliable short-term tests1, but certain human or animal carcinogens are persistently undetectable as mutagents with the Antes assay2–5 or with other short-term tests currently in use6,7. Thus there is a need for short-term tests which detect carcinogens missed by the Ames assay1. Because of the association of carcino-genesis with genome rearrangement8–12, a system screening for intrachromosomal recombination resulting in genome rearrangement has been constructed in Saccharomyces ceremstae13. Evaluation of this system shows indncibility by a variety of carcinogens3–7 not detectable by the Ames assay or various other short-term tests. In the light of these results it is tempting to speculate that 'nongenotoxic carcinogens' are in fact genotoxic but, in the past, the tools to measure the genetic alterations they induce have been inappropriate.
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Schiestl, R. Nonmutagenic carcinogens induce intrachromosomal recombination in yeast. Nature 337, 285–288 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/337285a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/337285a0
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