Studying genotoxic and antimutagenic effects of plant extracts in Drosophila test systems

Abstract

© 2016 Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden Jevremovac, Belgrade. To gain more information on biological effects of plants, particularly herbs used in human medicineand 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 somaticmutations and recombination (SMART) tests are in vivo assays on D. melanogaster that have beenused to test both mutagenic and antigenotoxic effects of extracts from numerous plant speciesused worldwide. The similarity of metabolic pathways between Drosophila and mammals and theability to activate promutagens make the results of these tests widely applicable. Besides, Drosophilapresents significant orthology with human genes that control cancers, which makes the assays onDrosophila reliable and informative for extrapolations onto humans.