Evaluation of mutagenicity testing with Salmonella typhimurium TA102 in three different laboratories

Thirty compounds of various chemical classes were investigated for mutagenicity in a collaborative study (three laboratories) using Salmonella typhimurium TA102. With five compounds, hydrazine sulfate, phenylhydrazine, hydralazine, glutardialdehyde, and glyoxal, mutagenicity was detected by all laboratories. Formaldehyde was assessed as weakly mutagenic in only one of three laboratories. The remaining 24 agents were uniformly described as non-genotoxic in TA102. In spite of the overall good qualitative agreement in the mutagenicity results between the three laboratories, some quantitative discrepancies occurred in the dose response of the mutagenic compounds. Varying inter- and intralaboratory differences in the spontaneous rate of revertants were obtained. The usefulness of the tester strain TA102 in routine mutagenicity testing is discussed.