[Toxicogenetic effects of azo- and arylmethane dyes]

The haploid strain 15B-II4 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used to study in an acute experiment the toxic and mutagenic effects of arylmethane dyes Victory Blue (C.I. 44040), Methyl Violet (C.I. 42535), Brilliant Green (C.I. 42040) and cancerogenic aminoazo dye Chrysoidine (C.I. 11270). High biological activity of all the dyes tested was found, based on such toxic effects as cell killing and growth inhibition. Also, it was shown that the dyes could increase the frequency of appearance of nuclear point mutations and cytoplasmic mutations of respiratory deficiency.