Studies on the mutagenic potential of the pesticide chlordimeforme and its principal metabolites in the mouse heritable translocation assay.

Chlordimeforme and its 2 principal metabolites, N-formyl-4-chloro-o-toluidine and 4-chloro-o-toluidine, were studied for induction of heritable translocations. Maximal tolerated doses of the compounds were given daily by gavage for 7 consecutive weeks. After mating with untreated females, about 1000 F1 male offspring per group--including vehicle control and positive control (Tretamine, TEM)--were tested for their reproductive performance by use of a sequential decision procedure on litter sizes to select males with translocation heterozygosity. Partially sterile, sterile and non-classifiable F1 males were examined cytogenetically by scoring meiotic chromosomes for translocation multivalents or analysing mitotic divisions for marker chromosomes. The 3 compounds tested at dose levels showing toxic effects did not induce translocation heterozygosity. Tretamine, the positive control, gave the expected mutagenic response.