Studying Genotoxic And Antimutagenic Effects Of Plant Extracts In Drosophila Test Systems
Marina Stamenković‐Radak, Andjelković Marko · INFM-OAR (INFN Catania) · 2016
To gain more information on biological effects of plants, particularly herbs used in human medicine and diet, in vitro and in vivo methods have been developed to predict their genotoxicity and/ or antigenotoxicity in various test systems. The sex-linked recessive lethal (SLRL) and somatic mutations and recombination (SMART) tests are in vivo assays on D. melanogaster that have been used to test both mutagenic and antigenotoxic effects of extracts from numerous plant species used worldwide. The similarity of metabolic pathways between Drosophila and mammals and the ability to activate promutagens make the results of these tests widely applicable. Besides, Drosophila presents significant orthology with human genes that control cancers, which makes the assays on Drosophila reliable and informative for extrapolations onto humans.