Ethane methyl sulfonate

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Ethyl methyl sulfonate (CH3SO3CH2CH3) and ethyl ethane sulfonate (CH3CH2SO3CH2CH3) are ethylating of the purine ring and ends with the hydrolysis of the purine deoxyribose bond. It is assumed that, when DNA replication and repair take place, the repair enzyme is free to insert any of the four possible bases into the new strand as a complement to the gap created when these alkylating agents remove a purine. If thymine is placed in the newly formed strand, then the original base pair will be restored. Insertion of cytosine will result in a transition mutation; insertion of either adenine or guanine will result in a transversion mutation. Of course, the gap is still there to continue to generate new mutations each generation.

[edit] The use of Ethyl Methhyl Sulfonate in Molecular Biology

Ethyl Methane-Sulphonate (EMS) is commonly used by biologists to mutate DNA as it generates random single point mutations. These mutations often lead to a complete or partial loss of gene function and can occur anywhere in the genome. The use of EMS mutagenesis can be used in many organisms including worms and Arabidopsis. In Arabidopisis typically six to seven thousand seeds are treated with Ethyl Methane-Sulphonate for about nine hours. Following treatment seeds are planted out and mutated phenotypes are scored in the M2 generation. Any identified mutants are then studied further so as to identify the genes responsible for the mutation.