Abstract
Both with a conventional method and with the “aneuploidy pattern method” we tested whether the solvent dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is able to induce aneuploidy (numerical chromosome aberrations) in oocytes of Drosophila melanogaster. DMSO was fed as a 2% solution to Drosophila females. No evidence for a mutagenic activity was obtained. This finding and the negative results reported by other authors for other types of mutation in Drosophila show that DMSO can be used as a solvent for chemical agents in mutagenicity screening in Drosophila melanogaster.