Mutational specificity of the carcinogen 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]-indole in mammalian cells.

We have used the pZipHprtNeo shuttle vector to determine the types of DNA sequence alterations induced by a potent carcinogen 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole (Trp-P2). The shuttle vector contains a human cDNA hprt as the target gene and is stably integrated into a chromosome of the mouse cell line VH12. After Trp-P2 treatment, 59 independent HPRT- mutant clones of VH12 were isolated and altered sequences of the mutant hprt- cDNA genes were determined. Mutations induced by Trp-P2 comprised a variety of events; base substitutions, frameshifts, deletions and complex. Frameshifts were the most frequent mutational events (51%), and base substitutions were the next most frequent (30%) followed by deletions (14%). Examination of the DNA sequence context in the mutant genes revealed that approximately 70% of mutations induced by Trp-P2 occurred at G:C sites and thymine residues were the suggested target for the remainder of mutations. The results seem consistent with the previously reported finding that in vivo, metabolically activated Trp-P2 specifically binds to the C8 position of guanine residues in DNA to form C8G-Trp-P2 adducts (Hashimoto et al., Mutat, Res., 105, 9-13, 1982). As for molecular mechanisms, we showed that slippage and slippage misalignment could predict the generation of a large portion of Trp-P2-induced mutations found in the cDNA gene.