Mutational spectrum induced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by the carcinogen N-2-acetylaminofluorene

The spectrum of mutations induced by the carcinogen N-2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) was analysed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a forward mutation assay, namely the inactivation of the URA3 gene. The URA3 gene, carried on a yeast/bacterial shuttle vector, was randomly modified in vitro using N-acetoxy-N-2-acetylaminofluorene (N-AcO-AAF) as a model reactive metabolite of the carcinogen AAF. The binding spectrum of AAF to the URA3 gene was determined and found to be essentially random, as all guanine residues reacted about equally well with N-AcO-AAF. Independent Ura- mutants were selected in vivo after transformation of the modified plasmid into a ura3 delta yeast strain. Plasmid survival decreased as a function of AAF modification, leading to one lethal hit (37% relative survival) for an average of approximately 50 AAF adducts per plasmid molecule. At this level of modification the mutation frequency was equal to approximately 70 x 10(-4), i.e. approximately 50-fold above the background mutation frequency. UV irradiation of the yeast cells did not further stimulate the mutagenic response, indicating the lack of an SOS-like mutagenic response in yeast. Sequence analysis of the URA3 mutants revealed approximately 48% frameshifts, approximately 44% base substitutions and approximately 8% complex events. While most base substitutions (74%) were found to be targeted at G residues where AAF is known to form covalent C8 adducts, frameshift mutations were observed at GC base pairs in only approximately 24% of cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)