Effects of methylation and ring size on mutagenicity of cyclic nitrosamines in Drosophila melanogaster.

The mutagenic activity of 7 nitrosopiperazines, 2 nitropyrrolidines, and 3 nitrosomorpholines was examined in the X-linked recessive-lethal assay of Drosophila melanogaster. Mutagenicity is also reported for a series of cyclic nitrosamines that differ in structure only in the number of carbon atoms in the ring. Of the 18 compounds tested, 6 (nitrosopiperazine; 2,3,5,6-tetramethyldinitrosopiperazine; nitrosoproline; 2,5-dimethylnitrosopyrrolidine; nitrosothiomorpholine; and nitrosooctamethyleneimine) were nonmutagenic. As we reported earlier in investigations with the nitrosopiperidines, substitutions with methyl groups at all of the alpha-carbon atoms reduce or eliminate the mutagenic activity of dinitrosopiperazine and nitrosopyrrolidine.