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Biomedical subjects

F Eckardt

Publications and source records attributed to F Eckardt.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The effects of three rad genes on UV induced mutation rates in haploid and diploid Saccharomyces cells.

Effects of the rad 2-20, rad 9-4, r1s, and the corresponding wild type RAD alleles in haploid and homozygous diploid Saccharomyces strains on UV induced mutation rates from adenine, lysine and histidine dependence to independence are reported. The UV induced mutation rates were similar for the RAD, r1s, and rad 9-4 haploids, whereas the rad 2-20 mutation causes a marked increase in the UV induced mutation rates. The diploid rad 2-20 strain also exhibits a marked increase in the UV induced mutation rates, whereas the rad 9-4 diploid has reduced mutation rates when compared to the wildtype. The UV induced mutation rates of haploid and diploid RAD strains are almost identical. For the rad 2-20 and rad 9-4 diploids, however, these rates are smaller than in the corresponding haploid strains. Differential effects of the rad genes on the ratio of locus to suppressor mutations were found. The implications of these findings on possible repair processes in yeasts are discussed.

Adenine↗

Analysis of non-linearities in mutation frequency curves.

Mutation frequency curves for ultraviolet light and other mutagens often exhibit non-linear, as well as linear components. A common pattern observed for UV-induced reversion of auxotrophy in yeast is a biphasic, linear-quadratic (or higher order) response. The non-linear component in such a biphasic frequency curve can arise in two distinct, but non-mutually exclusive, ways: (i) as a result of the existence of two-hit processes in the molecular mechanism(s) of mutagenesis; and (ii) as a result of the possible stochastic dependence of mutation and killing, such that the probability of clone formation by the mutant cells differs from that of the non-mutant cells in the population. We describe here a simple mathematical method for distinguishing between these two sources of non-linearity. It is based on the calculation of a quantity that we call 'apparent survival.' This is given, for any mutagen dose chi, by the ratio of the mutant yield to the corresponding linear component of mutation frequency. If the apparent survival rises to values greater than unity before declining at high doses, then there must exist positive two-hit (or higher order) components in the mutational mechanism. If the final slope of the apparent survival curve differs from that of the measured survival curve, then there also exists some degree of stochastic dependence between mutation and killing.

Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation↗

Rat hepatic vinyl chloride metabolites induce gene conversion in the yeast strain D7RAD in vitro and in vivo.

We have tested the genetic activity of gaseous vinyl chloride in vitro and in vivo using the gene-conversion system (trp5-12/trp5-27 leads to TRP+) in the yeast strain D7RAD. To induce, in vitro, TRP+ convertants with 2.5% gaseous vinyl chloride, a rat-liver microsomal system for metabolic activation of the vinyl chloride and dividing yeast cells are required. Neither a deficiency in excision repair (rad3) nor in the error-prone repair pathway (rad6) increased the vinyl-chloride-induced conversion frequencies compared with the repair-competent D7RAD strain. When logarithmically growing cells of the D7RAD strain were injected intravenously into male Wistar rats which inhaled 1% vinyl chloride in air for 24 h, a significant enhancement of the TRP+ conversion frequencies was found compared with that in cells re-isolated from untreated rats. These results indicate that vinyl chloride metabolites from the metabolizing hepatocytes diffuse into yeast cells, which accumulate in the liver capillaries. This supports the hypothesis that the endothelial cells of the liver sinuses, which have hardly any metabolic activity, but give rise to vinyl-chloride-induced hemangiotheliomas (rare type of liver tumor), are transformed by diffusible metabolites of the procarcinogen vinyl chloride.

Animals↗