Susceptibility to genetic damage and cell types in Mediterranean mussels.

Biological and procedural factors can influence DNA adduct detection in aquatic organisms. Among them, functional structure and metabolic traits represent major biological determinants for adducts formed by lipophilic pro-mutagenic contaminants. In detecting DNA adducts through the P-32-postlabelling assay, efficiency in DNA purification, digestion, labelling, as well as adduct enrichment and quantification may explain differences between independent studies. Reference DNA adducts have been used to verify some P-32-postlabelling aspects. Data obtained for mussels and fish treated with benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and environmentally exposed to genotoxins confirm the above assertions. Although the P-32-postlabelling assay cannot be proposed for routine biomonitoring it appears a reliable and very sensitive index of exposure to genotoxic pollutants in both fish and mollusks