Mutagenic and recombinogenic effects of the antitumor daunomycin

Daunomycin, one of the pyrrolo [1,4] benzo-diazepine antibiotics with potent antitumor activity, was tested for its effects on a number of genetic parameters. The results show that this antibiotic is nonmutagenic in the Ames strains of Salmonella typhimurium while mutagenic in only one and antimutagenic in the rest of the genes tested in the eukaryotic organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The antibiotic is, however, a potent recombinogen as it induced mitohc crossing over, mitotic gene conversion and, possibly other chromosomal alterations in a diplold strain of S. cerevisiae. These studies emphasize the need for a battery of test systems including eukaryotic organisms to detect the genetic activity of certain antitumor drugs