A SEARCH FOR DOMINANT MUTATIONS IN F1 PROGENY OF MALE MICE TREATED WITH TRENIMONE (TRIETHYLENEIMINOBENZOQUINONE-1,4)

A pilot study was carried out in order to examine the possibilities to ascertain dominant visible effects in F1 mice after treatment of their fathers with a chemical mutagen. Male mice were treated by intraperitoneal injection of 0.125 mg/kg body weight of Trenimone and mated in eight series of 1 week each. The F1 generation was examined for litter size, stillbirths, sex ratio, surviving of the first 21 days, body weight, dominant visible mutations, and abnormalities of the skeleton. Two malformations of the skeleton were found in the treated group which could possibly be due to mutation. Otherwise no clearcut dominant mutation was discovered. Besides, body weight in experimental series I-III turned out to be significantly higher than in all other groups, pointing to an intrauterine advantage of the surviving animals of these series in which litter size was reduced due to dominant lethal effects. This difference of living conditions might introduce a bias into examinations in which skelatal anomalies are used as indicators for dominant mutations. It is concluded that the method cannot be recommended for screening of chemicals as to their mutagenic activity. © 1969 Springer-Verlag.