Application of Salmonella strains with altered nitroreductase and O-acetyltransferase activities to the evaluation of the mutagenicity of airborne particles.

The Ames test was applied to evaluation of the mutagenicity of month's samples of airborne particles from the center of Wrocław (SW Poland) collected in August and December 1997. The strains used for the study were TA 98, TA 100 and their derivatives: TA 98 NR, YG 1021, YG 1024, YG 1026, YG 1029, YG 1041, YG 1042. Both studied samples were mutagenic for almost all tested strains, with the exception of the August sample which did not influence the strain TA 100 without the metabolic activation with the S9 fraction. The December sample exhibited higher genotoxic activity than the August sample. Mutagenicity ratios of the strains with reduced nitroreductase and O-acetyltransferase activities were higher, and of the strain without the nitroreductase--lower than those of the parent strains. This indicates that nitro and amino derivatives of PAHs are responsible for the significant proportion of total mutagenicity of the studied samples of particulates. Metabolic activation with the S9 fraction caused the increase of the mutagenic activity of the samples, which indicates the presence of promutagens. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of known indirect mutagens from the PAHs group.