Dietary antioxidants impact DDT resistance in Drosophila melanogaster
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Date
2020
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PloS ONE
Abstract
Insects experience a diversity of subtoxic and/or toxic xenobiotics through exposure to pesticides and, in the case of herbivorous insects, through plant defensive compounds in their
diets. Many insects are also concurrently exposed to antioxidants in their diets. The impact
of dietary antioxidants on the toxicity of xenobiotics in insects is not well understood, in part
due to the challenge of developing appropriate systems in which doses and exposure times
(of both the antioxidants and the xenobiotics) can be controlled and outcomes can be easily
measured. However, in Drosophila melanogaster, a well-established insect model system,
both dietary factors and pesticide exposure can be easily controlled. Additionally, the mode
of action and xenobiotic metabolism of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a highly persistent neurotoxic organochlorine insecticide that is detected widely in the environment,
have been well studied in DDT-susceptible and -resistant strains. Using a glass-vial bioassay system with blue diet as the food source, seven compounds with known antioxidant
effects (ascorbic acid, β-carotene, glutathione, α-lipoic acid, melatonin, minocycline, and
serotonin) were orally tested for their impact on DDT toxicity across three strains of D. melanogaster: one highly susceptible to DDT (Canton-S), one mildly susceptible (91-C), and one
highly resistant (91-R). Three of the antioxidants (serotonin, ascorbic acid, and β-carotene)
significantly impacted the toxicity of DDT in one or more strains. Fly strain and gender, antioxidant type, and antioxidant dose all affected the relative toxicity of DDT. Our work demonstrates that dietary antioxidants can potentially alter the toxicity of a xenobiotic in an insect
population.
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Abdu-Allah GAM, Seong KM, Mittapalli O, Ojo JA, Sun W, Posos-Parra O, et al. (2020) Dietary antioxidants impact DDT resistance in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS ONE 15(8): e0237986. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237986