How to tell that product is carcinogenic or

not?
 That is why the Ames test came into existence.
 In Ames test a special strain of salmonella typhimurium
is used which is histidine lacking.
 These histidine lacking bacterial strain cannot grow on its
own.
 The chemical mutagen is then added to the nutrition
media. this mutagen revert back the action of histidine
producing gene and they start their normal
functioning.
 If the bacterial sample show growth in the media plate
having chemical mutagen this show the test is
positive ,if growth is not obtained then test is negative.
History of Ames
test
•Ames test was
brought forward by
Bruce Ames in 1970.
•He is professor
in university of
california,berkely.
•In department
of biochemistry.
•He developed this
method because
previous methods
were expensive and
time consuming.
Ames test
procedure
 in this test the salmonella typhimurium strain is
used which is mutant.
 The mutation is the histidine synthesis' gene so the
bacteria is called as (his-) histidine minus strain.
 This strain of bacteria cannot grow without
histidine amino acid.
 When the bacteria is inoculated in the media plate
without histidine amino acid in them they are unable
to grow even if they are placed in suitable
environment for prescribed time.
 But here the case is for chemical mutagens.
 As we are using his- strain of bacteria. this bacteria
cannot grow on normal media plate.
 But if the chemical is mutagen is added in the media
plate
 this chemical mutagen will turn the his- gene to his+ gene.
due to the activity of mutagenic chemical compound.
 Now due to the mutation this bacterial strain will
produce their own histidine and can grow on plate.
 This type of mutation is called as back mutation.
Pictogram of Ames
test
Importanc
eof chemical product used today can be carcinogenic.
 Ames test is important nowadays because the amount

 Ames test are usually applied in the pharmaceutical

industry prior to using them in animal and human,if
the sample fails in Ames test its production is
stopped.
 Many organic product which are thought to be safe
for the human use are termed carcinogenic in Ames
test
 Many cosmetics are now first tested in Ames
test before their commerial production.
Application in
Biotechnology
 Smoker urine test for mutagenicity is possible by the
use of Ames test.
 Primary DNA damage test can be done through Ames
test
 This test is highly sensible for testing the
mutagenicity of water and solid soil sample from the
nuclear war zone by Muta-chromoplate kit.
 Type analysis of soil and petroleum product for
mutagenicity.