Mutagenicities of nitrofuran derivatives on a bacterial tester strain with an R factor plasmid.

Many nitrofuran derivatives are known to be mutagenic on Escherichia coli WP2 but not on Salmonella typhimurium TA1535, TA1536, TA1537 or TA1538. Ames and coworkers recently obtained a new tester strain of S. typhimurium, TA100, by putting an R factor plasmid, pKM101, into TA1535. We found that all mutagenic nitrofuran derivatives previously found to be mutagenic on E. coli WP2 were mutagenic on this new strain (TA100).