Table 4.

Comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the most widely used antimutagenicity screening tests

Test name	Main advantages	Main disadvantages
Salmonella typhimurium assay	- Very extensive database available - Easy to perform - No special equipment is necessary	- Tester organism is a potentially pathogenic bacterium - Several tester strains should be used - A relatively long time necessary to perform the analysis - Will not detect mutagens that interact with eukaryote-specific targets
Escherichia coli WP2 assay	- Easy to perform - No special equipment is necessary - Only one tester strain is needed	- A relatively long time necessary to perform the analysis - Will not detect mutagens that interact with eukaryote-specific targets
Vibrio harveyi assay	- Relatively low cost - The simplicity of procedures - Tester organism is not pathogenic to humans - May detect significantly lower concentrations of typical chemical mutagens than the Ames test - No special equipment is necessary	- Several tester strains should be used - A relatively long time necessary to perform the analysis - Will not detect mutagens that interact with eukaryote-specific targets
SOS chromotest	- The simplicity of procedures - Test rapidity - Only one tester strain is needed	- Will not detect mutagens that interact with eukaryote-specific targets - Special equipment is necessary
Saccharomyces cerevisiae assay	- Eukaryotic architecture - Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains do have endogenous cytochrome P450 - No special equipment is necessary	- A relatively long time necessary to perform the analysis