The Effect of Metabolites of 2-naphthylamine and the Mutagen Hydroxylamine on the Thermal Stability of Dna and Polyribonucleotides.

x-acetylaminofiuorene N-hydroxy-2-acetylamino fluorene x-hydroxy-2-acetylamino fluorene 2-hydroxylaminonaphthalene Recently it has become apparent that an increasing number of carcinogens are capable of interacting with nucleic acids (10, 14, 923). These observations may be causally related to the mech anism of carcinogenesis as being a special case of mutagenesis. The chemical reactions of some mutagenic agents such as nitrous acid, hydroxyl amine, and alkylating agents with DNA have been studied with the view of explaining their muta genic action. A need exists, however, for a physical method, sensitive to small chemical alterations in DNA,