[Killietalk] Use of Acriflavine (was: carbonates (probably)/my two cents)

[Brian Watters <bwatters at shaw_ca>]

Bruce J. Turner wrote:

> ........ With acriflavine we are on perhaps firmer ground,
> for the proflavins as a group are
> intercalating dyes that can get between the paired bases of a DNA
> double helix and distort it.  Repair
> mechanisms go to work which can then cause deletions and/or additions of
> single bases, resulting in lethal
> "frameshift" mutations.  Although I've used large amounts of
> acriflavine in the past, I would not now have i(t) in my fishroom.
>

I also tend to avoid using Acriflavine because of an experience I had some
years ago with mutations that I feel sure were caused by the excessive use
of this dye. I have also heard from others who have had similar experiences.
A few years ago, I related this experience on KillieTalk so some of you will
probably remember it. However, for the benefit of those who do not, or are
new to this forum, I will copy it below:

--------
"Many years ago, I had very bad cases of velvet in a couple of populations
of
wild Nothos from Malawi and I treated these with very heavy doses of
acriflavine added to the breeding setups. (This in itself was unusual
because wild Nothos tend to be very much more resistant to velvet than
aquarium raised specimens). When I hatched eggs spawned in both these setups
(from the couple of weeks or so that I was using the heavy medication), I
got a small proportion (less than one percent) of fry that were siamezed in
various ways. I had fry joined at the abdomen, fry with two heads (with a Y
shape, the bifurcation being immediately behind the gills), four-eyed fry,
etc. Incidentally, I have some interesting photomicrographs of these little
"monsters". I hatched out large numbers of fry from other spawning groups at
the same time, that were not treated with acriflavine, and none of those
produced any such mutants.

Deformities of this nature could, I suppose, have been the result of other
factors but the correlation between the occurrence of the siamezed fry and
the very heavy acriflavine treatment used at the time the eggs were spawned
would then have to be an amazing coincidence."
-------
________________________________________
Brian Watters
6141 Parkwood Drive
Nanaimo, British Columbia V9T 6A2, Canada
Tel: (250) 760-0564
E-mail: bwatters at shaw_ca

Join the AKA at http://aka.org/modules/tinycontent0/index.php?id=9
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk