A. Jauch, Werner K. Lutz

• The trypsin fragments of rat liver microsomal cytochron1e b\(_5\) (Tb\(_5\)) lack both methionine (met) and cysteine (cys), i.e., the sulphur-containing antino acids. Tb\(_5\) should therefore contain no 358-radioactivity after isolation from animals treated wHh [\(^{35}\)S]met or [\(^{36}\)S]cys. If, however, the nucleic acids coding for this polypeptide have been damaged by a genotoxic carcinogen, a miscoding could result in an incorporation of met or cys into the polypeptide so that Tb\(_8\) could now be \(^{36}\)S-radiolabelled. TwoThe trypsin fragments of rat liver microsomal cytochron1e b\(_5\) (Tb\(_5\)) lack both methionine (met) and cysteine (cys), i.e., the sulphur-containing antino acids. Tb\(_5\) should therefore contain no 358-radioactivity after isolation from animals treated wHh [\(^{35}\)S]met or [\(^{36}\)S]cys. If, however, the nucleic acids coding for this polypeptide have been damaged by a genotoxic carcinogen, a miscoding could result in an incorporation of met or cys into the polypeptide so that Tb\(_8\) could now be \(^{36}\)S-radiolabelled. Two experiments are descrihed. the first one where a toxic regimen of N -nitrosomorpholine (NNM) to rats resulted in a significant increase of \(^{35}\)S-radioactivity in the Tbs of liver microsomes, and a second experiment with a non-toxic regimen of N,N diethylnitrosamine (DENA), where no increase was observable.…