Reduced mutant yield at high doses in the Salmonella/activation assay: the cause is not always toxicity

In the Salmonella/activation assay developed by Ames et al [1973, 1975] toxicity is not measured, though it is recognized by the loss of a cloudy appearance on the plate. One approach to the measurement of toxicity is described here and uses a microscope-linked automated colony counter to estimate the number of microcolonies formed by histidine auxotrophs that stop growing after the depletion of histidine. This technique was used to evaluate the effect of toxicity on the revertant count for 16 mutagens, most of which were chosen because, from previous experience, their dose-response curves manifested a maximum at an intermediate dose tested. One of the sixteen, 2-nitrofluorene, was not toxic up to the maximum dose tested. The relationship between mutation and toxicity for the remaining fifteen allowed them to be grouped into two categories: (1) compounds that induced decreases in survival at the same dose at which the number of mutants decreased, and (2) compounds that induced toxicity, but survival was reduced at dose levels higher than those required to reduce the number of mutants. Possible explanations for this reduction of mutant counts occurring with little apparent concomitant increase in toxicity are examined. These results may be significant for attempts to estimate mutagenic potency and, to a lesser extent, construct mathematical models of the Ames test.