Effect of Chemical Modifiers on Inactivation and Mutation-Induction by Gamma Radiation in Escherichia coli

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Abstract
The effect of chemical sensitizing and protective agents on the rate of mutation induction by gamma radiation in strain WP2 of Escherichia coli B/r was studied. This organism will not grow in the absence of tryptophan but it mutates spontaneously at a very low rate, and under the influence of radiation at a much higher rate, to stable forms which can grow in the absence of tryptophan. Both inactivation and mutation-induction were apparently related to radiation dose by an exponential function in the absence of modifying agents; in their presence this was not always the case. The sensitizing agents oxygen and N-ethylmaleimide, and the protective agents cysteine, glycerol, dimethyl sulphoxide and thiourea, affected both the inactivating and mutation-inducing actions of radiation though not always to the same extent.

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