DNA-damaging activity of patulin in Escherichia coli

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Abstract
At a concentration of 10 .mu.g/ml, patulin caused single-strand DNA breaks in living cells of Escherichia coli. At 50 .mu.g/ml, double-strand breaks were observed also. Single-strand breaks were repaired in the presence of 10 .mu.g of patulin per ml within 90 min when the cells were incubated at 37.degree.C in M9-salts solution without a carbon source. The same concentration also induced temperature-sensitive lambda prophage and a prophage of Bacillus megaterium. When an in vitro system with permeabilized Escherichia coli cells was used, patulin at 10 .mu.g/ml induced DNA repair synthesis and inhibited DNA replication. The in vivo occurrence of DNA strand breaks and DNA repair correlated with the in vitro induction of repair synthesis. In vitro the RNA synthesis was less affected, and overall protein synthesis was not inhibited at 10 .mu.g/ml. Only at higher concentrations (250 to 500 .mu.g/ml) was inhibition of in vitro protein synthesis observed. Thus, patulin must be regarded as a mycotoxin with selective DNA-damaging activity.