Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

AMELIORATIVE EFFECTS OF ALOE VERA GEL ON MALE REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AFTER PARAQUAT EXPOSURE

Usha Rani, Manvender Singh and Krishan Kumar Selwal

Abstract

Paraquat (PQ) generally considered safe and widely used in agriculture as herbicide to protect crops against unwanted organisms. The oxidative stress generated by PQ may adversely affect reproductive performance in model organisms and humans. In the present study, we made an investigation on paraquat exposure and male reproductive performance in Drosophila melanogaster. Newly emerged virgin individuals of Drosophila melanogaster were separated gender-wise and were grown on control diet. Male individuals were divided into five different groups namely (i) Control, (ii) PQ intoxicated, (iii) Pre-treated, (iv) Post-treated and (v) Co-treated. For Paraquat intoxication, three day old virgin male individuals were exposed to Paraquat for 24 hours in 18mM concentration. Control flies were not intoxicated with Paraquat. PQ intoxicated flies were fed on control diet before and after paraquat intoxication. For Pre-treated groups and Post treated groups, flies were fed on Aloe vera supplemented diet before and after paraquat treatment, respectively whereas flies were fed on Aloe vera supplemented diet both before and after paraquat treatment for Cotreated groups. After PQ treatment, individuals from PQ-treated group, Post-treated group; and PQ-AV Co-treated groups were put in control and Aloe vera gel supplemented diet respectively for next 2 days to recover from stress. 6-day old male individuals from all the five groups namely, control, PQ-treated, Pretreated, Post-treated and PQ-AV Co-treated were allowed to copulate with same aged virgin female individuals for mating assay. For each group, at-least 10 pairs were used in triplicates. After mating, male individuals were scarified to evaluate superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and female individuals were analyzed for fecundity for next seven consecutive days. The results of the present study suggest that Paraquat exposure to male individuals prior to mating significantly and negatively affects the reproductive and fitness parameters in Drosophila melanogaster. It may infer from the results that Aloe vera gel supplementation to the paraquat exposed male Drosophila individuals improves the male reproductive performance by reducing paraquat induced oxidative stress.