Observation of Fruit Flies Consuming Organic Versus Glyphosate Based Sucrose

Event Center BC

Food composition is a big concern since it directly affects our well-being. Glyphosate, an herbicide residue found on many conventional food sources, can potentially damage organs and health. The current study is a continuation of a previous experiment, which involved allowing Drosophila melanogaster to choose different sources of corn, three conventional and one organic. Two corn sources, organic and one type of conventional corn, were presented in a t-tube, and flies were given fifteen minutes to choose a side. Organic food was not more attractive, which could have been due to the unknown concentration of glyphosate in the conventional corn. In this experiment, a more direct approach to measuring the fruit fly’s food consumption was used. Feeding tubes composed of a capillary tube in a micropipette contain a 5% sucrose solution, along with red or blue dye to keep track of whether the food is being consumed, and either 10 g, 1g, 100 mg or 0 mg of glyphosate from round-up. Flies were starved 24 hours before the start of the assay and then given 24 hours to consume the food. This will demonstrate whether glyphosate concentration influences food consumption.