Abstract

Metals and metal ions play an important role in biological processes like growth, metabolism and other biochemical processes. In our present study, Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model organism to study the effects like growth rate, fertility, viability, morphological changes and other chromosomal aberrations. The flies were subjected to different concentration of metal sulphates like MgSO4, CuSO4, Al2 (SO4)3 and FeSO4 which were dissolved in rava-jaggery media. However, there was great variation in growth rate with the compounds like CuSO4 , Al2(SO4)3 and FeSO4 but could see remarkable morphological changes with increase in the growth rate of flies grown in the media containing compounds MgSO4. Mg2+ ions play a vital role in approximately 300 enzymatic reactions within the body. Along with vigorous growth many morphological changes were also observed in wings, eyes, sex comb and abdominal region of adult flies. Since there are a few similarities between mammals and Drosophila melanogaster, an attempt was made to investigate the developmental aspects with few metal compounds which gave a clear view on how they promote or interfere the viability of the organism in their habitat. Key words: Metal sulphates, Growth, Metabolism, Fertility, Mg2+, Drosophila melanogaster.

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