N'-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene: the principal mutagen produced from N-hydroxy-2-acetylaminofluorene by a mammalian supernatant enzyme preparation.

A Salmonella typhimurium TA 1538 culture system wasused to monitor the production of mutagen from N-hydroxy-2-acetylaminofluorene by soluble liver enzymes. When benzene was used to extract the mutagen, no mutagenic activity remained in the liver enzyme preparation. The benzene extract contained approximately two-thirds of the total mutagenic activity produced by the liver enzyme preparation. Using thin layer and column chromatography to analyze the benzene extract, we deduced that N-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene accounted for the mutagenic activity which resulted from the incubation of N-hydroxy-2-acetylaminofluorene with soluble liver enzymes.