Looking back on the development history of MNT, we can't help but mention the contributions of Howell and Jolly at the end of 19. Howell and Jolly found a corpuscle called Howell-Jolly corpuscle in the peripheral blood of cats and rats respectively, and found that this corpuscle also existed in the peripheral blood of patients with pernicious anemia. This kind of particle seen in MNT today is called micronucleus (MN).

Evans et al. exposed Vicia faba root tip cells (V/c/a o) to ionizing radiation on 1959, observed the effect of radiation-induced MN formation, and indirectly inferred that MN originated from radiation-induced chromosome abnormality. This document is the first report to evaluate genotoxicity by reflecting chromosome abnormality and MN incidence. The author thinks that about 60% of chromosome fragments are directly related to MN morphogenesis.

1970, Boiler and Sehmid observed the changes of bone marrow and peripheral blood cells after administration of anti-tumor drug ~(triaziquone) with China golden hamster. In addition, the occurrence rate of MN in peripheral blood polychromatic erythrocytes was put forward as the basic index of micronucleus test, and it was officially named MNT. From that time to the mid-1970s, the work of Sehmid and Heddle's research group laid a comprehensive foundation for the theory and application of MNT.