EFFECTS OF NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENERS ON TOXICITY AND MATING BEHAVIOUR IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

The intake of sweeteners and sweetener containing foods has been increasing day by day, leading to the development of certain health problems, survival, and reproduction. Over the past few years, there has been an enormous growth in the study of sweetener substitutes as dietary assessments help in understanding the nutritional intake levels; however, its illeffects on life history traits have not been studied. In the present study, the effect of two Non-Nutritive Sweeteners (NNS), Aspartame and Sucralose and nutritive sweetener, Sucrose are been studied on toxicity, climbing ability and mating behaviour using Drosophila melanogaster. Control flies had the least mortality rate whereas the highest mortality rate was noticed in aspartame treated flies. Based on the mortality, LD50 values were fixed for NNS for further experiments. Five days old virgin females and unmated males obtained from control and LD50 treated media (Aspartame/Sucralose/Sucrose) were used for climbing ability and mating behaviour experiment. Control flies had a significantly greater climbing ability than nutritive and NNS treated flies. Further, NNS treated flies showed the least climbing ability. The highest mating success was noticed in control flies and the least mating success was found in flies treated with NNS. Aspartame treated flies took a long time for mating whereas control flies had taken the least time for mating. Further, male courtship activities were least in flies treated with NNS whereas control flies showed the highest courtship activities. On the other hand, female rejection responses were highest in flies fed with NNS and least among control flies. Thus, these studies in Drosophila melanogaster suggest that NNS such as aspartame and sucralose have toxic effects and have negative effects on fitness such as climbing ability, mating behaviour, and mating success.