{"id":8498,"date":"2019-05-22T16:08:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/mutagens\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:08:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:08:22","slug":"mutagens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/mutagens\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutagens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Broadly speaking, any substance, natural or man-made, that results in a mutation that alter the sequence or structure of DNA. &nbsp; Radiation, in the form of x-rays, was the first mutagen to be identified in 1927 by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genomenewsnetwork.org\/resources\/timeline\/1927_Muller.php\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.genomenewsnetwork.org\/resources\/timeline\/1927_Muller.php&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hermann J. Muller <\/a>(1890-1967) in fruit flies. &nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/emergency.cdc.gov\/agent\/nitrogenmustard\/basics\/facts.asp\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/emergency.cdc.gov\/agent\/nitrogenmustard\/basics\/facts.asp&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nitrogen mustard <\/a>(the main component of mustard gas) was then identified as a chemical mutagen in 1942 by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genetics.org\/content\/141\/1\/1.full.pdf\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.genetics.org\/content\/141\/1\/1.full.pdf&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Charlotte Auerbach<\/a> (1899-1994) and John M. Robson (1900-1982), once again in fruit flies. &nbsp;Subsequently, tobacco smoke and even coffee were shown to contain mutagenic agents, the latter in 1986 by means of subcutaneous injections of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1474413\/pdf\/envhper00438-0092.pdf\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1474413\/pdf\/envhper00438-0092.pdf&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">coffee in rats<\/a>. &nbsp;Mutagens can be carcinogenic, but not all mutagens are carcinogens. &nbsp;The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/~achaney\/tmve\/wiki100k\/docs\/Ames_test.html\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/~achaney\/tmve\/wiki100k\/docs\/Ames_test.html&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ames test<\/a>&nbsp;is used to screen for chemicals used in foodstuffs and medicines that could be mutagenic agents.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;See <a href=\"carcinogen\">Carcinogen<\/a>, DNA (deoxyribenucleic acid), <a href=\"forward_genetics\">Forward genetics<\/a>, <a href=\"gene_traps\">Gene traps<\/a>, <a href=\"mutant\">Mutant<\/a>, <a href=\"mutation_-biology-\">Mutation (biology)<\/a>, Teratogen<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broadly speaking, any substance, natural or man-made, that results in a mutation that alter the sequence or structure of DNA. &nbsp; Radiation, in the form of x-rays, was the first mutagen to be identified in 1927 by Hermann J. Muller (1890-1967) in fruit flies. &nbsp;Nitrogen mustard (the main component of mustard gas) was then identified &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/mutagens\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mutagens&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}