Estimation of apurinic/apyrimidinic sites and phosphotriesters in deoxyribonucleic acid treated with electrophilic carcinogens and mutagens.

The number of apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites in supercoiled SV40 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) after treatment with several electrophilic mutagens was quantitated by electrophoretic analysis of the DNA after cleavage of the phosphodiester bonds adjacent to AP sites by a specific endonuclease. The compounds studied, in order of increasing yields of AP sites obtained on incubation with the DNA for 5 h at 37 degrees C, were dimethylcarbamoyl chloride, ethyl methanesulfonate, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea, 2-(N-acetoxyacetylamino)fluorene, beta-propiolactone, N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, methyl methanesulfonate, 1'-acetoxyestragole, 4-(N-acetoxyacetylamino)stilbene, (+/-)-7 beta, 8 alpha-dihydroxy-9 alpha, 10 alpha-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene, N-(benzoyloxy)-N-methyl-4-aminoazobenzene, and 1-pyrenyloxirane. After a 5-h incubation at 37 degrees C and extraction of unreacted compound, further incubation at 70 degrees C generally increased the yield of AP sites; an exception was N-(benzoyloxy)-N-methyl-4-aminoazobenzene-reacted DNA. Except for DNA treated with N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea and N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, which are known to bind to a significant extent to DNA phosphates, the number of alkali-labile lesions in the treated DNA was similar to the number of AP sites. For the compounds studied there was no direct correlation between the number of AP sites produced and missense mutagenic activity, as measured in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA100.