Mutagenic potential of the non-nodulous nitrogen-fixing bacterium, Xanthobacter flavus in treated male parent mice and verified to their F₁ progeny

Abstract

The mutagenic potential of log culture (20×10⁷ cells per ml) of the non-nodulous nitrogenfixing free living bacterium, Xanthobacter flavus in treated male parent mice after mating with different sets of virgin untreated normal females for 7 consecutive weeks and in their F₁ progeny verified by lethal test in vivisected mothers and in living ones by various cytogenetic assays was found positive in each test as compared to parallel controls. In male parents as well as in both sexes of F₁ embryos and adults, as the cases might be, the frequencies of chromosome aberration and micronucleated erythrocytes in somatic cells, male meiotic chromosome aberration and sperm head abnormality were strikingly high in treated series than in respective controls, indicating the same trends of cytogenetical effects in parent and F₁ progeny of treated series. The results have been explained with the hypothesis that the treatment of log culture of X. flavus to male parent mice induced mutation to some genetic locus/loci which in normal state maintained the structural integrity of chromosome, but when mutated lost the control. This might have led to various cytogenetic effects in F₁ progeny, in some cases caused lethality while in others (living ones) produced visible cytogenetic anomalies of various forms assessed by different testing protocols.