The deami
natio
n of DNA bases by three
-
nitrosami
noaldehydes, butyletha
nal
nitrosami
ne,methyletha
nal
nitrosami
ne, a
nd
N-
nitroso-2-hydroxymorpholi
ne (NHMOR), the direct metabolite of pote
nt a
nimal carci
noge
n N-
nitrosodietha
nolami
ne, was demo
nstrated by a set of i
nvitro experime
nts. The deami
natio
n of gua
ni
ne, ade
ni
ne, a
nd cytosi
ne bases i
n nucleotides,oligo
nucleotides, a
nd calf thymus DNA gave xa
nthi
ne, hypoxa
nthi
ne, a
nd uracil, respectively.The order of relative reactivities of the bases was as listed above. Deami
natio
n of cytosi
ne touracil was detected by the reactio
n of
32P-labeled oligo
nucleotide ([5'-
32P]CGAT) followed bye
nzymatic hydrolysis. Qua
ntitative a
nalysis of deami
natio
n of gua
ni
ne a
nd ade
ni
ne i
n calfthymus DNA was performed by a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-selected io
nmo
nitori
ng method. Both the exte
nt a
nd the rate of the deami
natio
n reactio
ns which occur bytra
ns
nitrosatio
n from the
-
nitrosami
noaldehyde to the base were determi
ned for formatio
nof xa
nthi
ne a
nd hypoxa
nthi
ne. The deami
natio
n of gua
ni
ne by NHMOR remai
ned sig
nifica
ntat low substrate levels.