[Comparison of the detecting mutagenic effect of two short microbiological tests]

With pre-incubation and plate-incorporation, the responses of Arar forward mutation assay with S. typhimurium SV50 strain to 12 chemical mutagens were compared with those of four standard test strains (TA 97, TA 98, TA 100 and TA 102) in Ames test. The positive mutagenic results obtained from strain SV50 were in accordance with those from the four strains in Ames test. The mutagenicity of glutaraldehyde is the first reported in China. It is recommended that Arar forward mutation assay with strain SV50 can be regarded as one of the method of choice to screen chemical mutagens.