Biology and Medicine

Abstract

Neuropathological studies of Drosophila melanogaster with sublethal doses of malathion

Mehdi SH, *Qamar A

In the present work, we studied the neuropathological and behavioral effects on locomotion due to sub lethal chronic exposure to malathion in Drosophila melanogaster. To examine its effects we performed locomotion assay and brain histopathological analysis on treated flies. After 48 hrs of exposure, the treated flies exhibited characteristic locomotor impairments that increased with the dose of malathion. Histopathological observation demonstrated selective loss of nervous tissue in the various regions of brain. As compared to normal brain section, the affected regions exhibited disrupted neuro secretory cells and formation of vacuoles due to neuronal damage. Therefore, our study suggests that pesticide play possible role in neurodegeneration in D. melanogaster which provides in vivo model for studying the histological aspect of nervous tissue.