title: [Food additives and their possible genetic toxicity; microbiological determination].
abstract: In the present work we intend to find an accurat methodology to establish in an easy way the mutagenic potential of drugs employed as food additives. For that purpose we first selected a microbiological system for performing this assay. The method assayed consisted of investigating the effect exerted on genetic recombination by the following chemical agents: Chloroacetic Acid, Iodoacetic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Potassium Metabisulfite, Sodium Nitrite, Auramine and Erythrossine. The activity of these agents was detected though their effect on the transformation of an auxotrophic strain of Bacillus subtilis. Comparative assays of reversion of characters have been made with strains of Salmonella typimurium already used by other authors. These assays have also been repeated with several auxotrophic strains of Bacillus subtilis and different genetic characters have been studied. Most results suggest that changes in the recombination process should have occured at different levels according with the drugs assayed. On the other hand, the results of reversion have not been significant enough. We think that more accuracy is afforded by both the recombination and the reversion assay developed to other for this kind of detection.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D002273:Carcinogens; D005503:Food Additives / Q000633:toxicity*; D005827:Genetics, Microbial; D009153:Mutagens; D011995:Recombination, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects*; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D002273:Carcinogens; D005503:Food Additives; D009153:Mutagens
vernacular_title: Los aditivos alimentarios como posibles tóxicos genéticos deteriminación microbiológica.