Assessment of the uptake and mutagenicity of nickel chloride in salmonella tester strains.

NiCl2 was examined for mutagenic activity in a number of Salmonella tester strains. Conditions were established where there was substantial uptake of the metal into the bacterial cells. However, even when the metal ion was apparently taken up, as determined by metal association with cells, there was a lack of mutagenic activity. These results suggest that nickel is unable to induce basepair or frameshift mutations in Salmonella tester strains and are discussed in relationship to the low binding affinity of Ni(II) for DNA.