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Abstract
Bioassay-directed chemical fractionation methodology was used to calculate relative mutagenic potencies of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) of molecular weight 252 amu in coal tarcontaminated sediment from Sydney Harbour, Nova Scotia. A normal phase HPLC technique was used to separate organic solvent extracts into fractions containing isomeric PAH of a single benzologue class. Bioassays with Salmonella typhimurium strain YG1025 with the addition of oxidative metabolism (S9) showed that approximately 50% of the mutagenic activity observed in the sediment extract was associated with PAH of molecular weight 252 amu. Further separation of the 252 PAH fraction using reversed phase HPLC yielded subfractions containing individual compounds; bioassay dose-response curves for these subfractions showed that benzo[a]pyrene was responsible for approximately 75% of the activity of the 252 PAH fraction.