Determination of mutational spectrum of the pesticide, captan, with an improved set of Escherichia coli LacZ mutants.

ABSTRACT

The mutational spectrum of the fungicide, captan, was determined using a set of improved Escherichia coli lacZ mutants. Captan created mutations mostly at dA-dT sites (83%) with only 17% occurring at dG-dC sites. The hydrolysis products of captan do not appear to be mutagenic because samples of captan at different hydrolysis stages showed basically the same mutational spectra 31% at AT --> CG transversions, 8% of GC --> AT transitions, 2% of GC --> CG transversions, 8% of GC --> TA transversions, 19% of AT --> TA transversions, and 32% of AT --> GC transitions. Prepared solutions of captan lost their mutational activity gradually over time, indicating that the rate of decrease in mutagenicity agreed with the kinetics of captan hydrolysis reported in other studies. Using the change in mutagenicity to predict degradation, the hydrolysis of captan in pH 7.0 buffer was about three times faster than the hydrolysis carried out in pH 4.5 buffer. To our knowledge, this is the first presentation of mutational spectrum of captan.