Mutagen testing with yeast.

This article deals primarily with the practical aspects of mutagen testing with yeast. Equipment necessary for a laboratory where mutagen testing with yeast is performed, and the most commonly used media, are listed. Some general procedures are described and, finally, for those who have little experience with work of this kind, a precise protocol is given for an experiment with stationary phase cells of the strain D7 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the heteroallelic ade2 system as the genetic endpoint. Some experimental data were obtained by students following this protocol using the direct-acting mutagen ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS); these data are discussed and analyzed. More details on the various genetic endpoints available in numerous yeast strains and on the interpretation of dose-dependence data, as well as an extended list of yeast literature, can be found in an article by Eckardt and von Borstel in this volume. Further technical advice is provided in our references to Zimmermann (1975), von Borstel (1981), and Zimmermann et al. (1984).