Covalent binding of 6-nitrobenzo-[a]pyrene metabolites to DNA in vitro.

Incubation of 6-nitrobenzo[a]pyrene[7, 10-14C] and calf thymus DNA with rat liver S9 fractions resulted in covalent binding of nitrobenzo[a]pyrene to DNA. In the presence of flavin mononucleotide under anaerobic conditions, the amount of binding decreased. Binding studies using synthetic polynucleotides showed that there was a high preference for poly(dG) compared to poly(dA), poly(dC) and poly(T).