Chemosterilants as Mutagens

Chemical compounds that reduce or eliminate the reproductive capacity of an organism are called chemosterilants. In animals, particularly in those that reproduce sexually, normal reproductive processes form a complex network that can be disturbed chemically on several levels cellular, organic, or behavioral. Since all such disturbances may lead eventually to a decrease or cessation of reproduction, chemosterilants include compounds with different pharmacological properties and different modes of action. Nevertheless, because of the unique practical requirement that these compounds were expected to fulfill, the search for new chemosterilants was oriented primarily to finding and identifying selective types of cytotoxicity. A brief historical summary will clarify the reason for this orientation. 

Between 1952 and 1953, scientists of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted successful field experiments with a revolutionary method of insect control (Baumhover, 1966). The principle of this new technique was simple the reproductive capacity of an insect population is inversely related to the ratio between the sterile and fertile members of the popula- 

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