Naturally occurring carbonyl compounds are mutagens in Salmonella tester strain TA104.

Strains of Salmonella typhimurium that carry a nonsense mutation at the site of reversion detect a variety of naturally occurring and synthetic carbonyl compounds as direct-acting mutagens. TA104 is reverted efficiently by formaldehyde, alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes (enals), and dicarbonyl compounds, such as diacetyl and glutaraldehyde. This strain is much more sensitive to carbonyl mutagenesis than is TA100, a strain previously reported to detect aldehydes as mutagens, or any other characterized strains of Salmonella. Long-chain enals are very toxic to TA104, but addition of a reduced glutathione chase following an incubation period decreases this toxicity, thus enabling the detection of 4-hydroxy-pentenal, a homolog of the lipid peroxidation product, 4-hydroxy-nonenal, as a mutagen. This is the first report of the mutagenicity of a hydroxy-enal, a class of enals produced by lipid peroxidation. Testing conducted with strains that carry the nonsense mutation in different repair backgrounds indicates that the presence of pKM101 and the deletion of the uvrB gene facilitate the detection of enals and dicarbonyls, but not malondialdehyde, as mutagens. Since carbonyl compounds are widely distributed in foods, are generated during cellular metabolism, and are present in body fluids, they may make a significant contribution to the risk of human cancer.