For several years we have been conducting a survey of the mutagenic capacities of chemicals by testing various organic and inorganic compounds. This survey has shown that mutagenicity is not a specific property of any one group of chemicals, but appears among widely different groups (Demerec, Bertani, and Flint, 1951). In the course of the study we discovered that certain manganous and ferrous compounds are very potent mutagens, inducing mutations under conditions that produce very little or no killing (Demerec et al., 1950). Extensive studies made with MnCl2 then revealed an unusual situation. We found that the genetic effectiveness of this compound could be made to vary by as much as a factor of 2.5 − 104 by changing the physiological state of the organisms treated. Details of this work will be reported here.
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Demerec et al. (1951) studied this question.