ENVIRONMENTAL AND MOLECULAR MUTAGENESIS, vol.36, no.1, pp.40-46, 2000 (SCI-Expanded)
Four herbicides, namely propanil, maleic hydrazide, glyphosate, and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), were investigated for genotoxicity in the wing spot test of Drosophila melanogaster. The herbicides were administered by chronic feeding to 3-day-old larvae. Two different crosses, a standard (ST) and a high-bioactivation (HB) cross, involving the flare-3 (Flr(3)) and the multiple wing hairs (mwh) markers, were used. The HE cross uses flies characterized by an increased cytochrome P-450-dependent bioactivation capacity, which permits a more efficient biotrans-formation of promutagens and procarcinogens. In both crosses, the wings of the two types of progeny, which are inversion-free marker heterozygotes and balancer heterozygotes, were analyzed. Maleic hydrazide and glyphosate proved to be more genotoxic in the ST cross, whereas propanil appeared to be slightly more genotoxic in the HE cross. On the other hand, the herbicide 2,4,5-T increased the mutation frequency for only the small single spots in the ST cross. Environ. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.