Influence of anthropogenic substances on the germ cell mutation rate​

Institution: Senckenberg Society for Nature Research

Mutagenicity tests in ecotoxicology are currently carried out with prokaryotes or unicellular eukaryotes or infer a mutagenic effect from phenotypic changes. In view of the largely different mutation and repair mechanisms, a transfer to multicellular eukaryotes (including humans) is questionable and so far untested. The development of a new method makes it possible to measure the influence of substances on the mutation rate at reasonable expense. Genome-wide screening promises a much higher sensitivity in mutagenicity assessment than conventional tests. The aim is to test a new dimension of ecotoxicological assessment of anthropogenic substances and possibly establish it within the framework of ISO.