Abstract: | Five chemicals of industrial and agricultural relevance—ethylene dibromide, ethylene dichloride, propylene dichloride, allyl alcohol and sulphallate—were tested for their ability to induce reverse mutations in Salmonella typhimurium and forward mutations in Streptomyces coelicolor and Aspergillus nidulans. Ethylene dibromide was positive in all the genetic systems employed; sulphallate gave a positive response, to different degrees, in all the microorganisms; ethylene dichloride was weakly active in S. typhimurium following microsomal activation; propylene dichloride was detected as a direct acting mutagen in S. typhimurium and A. nidulans but not in S. coelicolor; allyl alcohol was completely negative in all test systems. |