Larger organisms like mammals have metabolic processes that could potentially turn a chemical considered not mutagenic into one that is or one that is considered mutagenic into one that is not. Therefore, to more effectively test a chemical compound's mutagenicity in relation to larger organisms, rat liver enzymes can be added in an attempt to replicate the metabolic processes' effect on the compound being tested in the Ames Test. Rat liver extract is optionally added to simulate the effect of metabolism, as some compounds, like , are not mutagenic themselves but their metabolic products are.