Genotoxicity of dicrotophos, an organophosphorous pesticide, assessed with different assays in vitro.

Dicrotophos is a systemic insecticide with a wide range of applications. We investigated the genotoxicity of dicrotophos using the Ames test, the chromosome aberration test in CHO-K1 cells, and the comet assay in the Hep G2 cells, while this chemicals' toxicity to both the cell lines was evaluated with the MTT assay. Results showed that dicrotophos did not show any cytotoxicity to CHO-K1 cells, whereas it was cytotoxic to HepG2 cells incubated for 24 h but not for 2 h. For genotoxicity of dicrotophos, a significant change in the numbers of bacterial reveratnts using Salmomella typhimurium TA97a, TA98, TA100, TA102, and TA1535 as the tester strains, an increase in the frequencies of chromosome aberration in CHO-K1 cells, and an induced DNA damage in HepG2 cells were observed, indicating that dicrotophos was genotoxic in these three performed assays. From this study, we provide further evidence towards of genotoxic effects of dicrotophos.