Developmental inhibition in Drosophila using dihydroxybenzoic acid isomers

Abstract

Five isomers of dihydroxybenzoic acid were added to a standard culture medium of Drosophila melanogaster and their effect on development time and progeny yield examined. Each isomer produced a distinct level of inhibitive influence throughout continuous inbred generations. The degree of developmental perturbation from a particular isomer was dependent on its protondonating power. Details of the alterations indicated enzyme inhibitions associated with the reaction kinetics of oxidative processes. A simple withdrawal of oxygen by briefly submerging pupae in water also altered the ontogenetic cycle suggesting an analogue of the isomer effect. Lengthened development produced by oxygen withdrawal in first-generation pupae was transferred to succeeding inbred generations. Published pharmacological studies in which drugs were introduced into Drosophila medium are given an interpretation based on the findings with the dihydroxybenzoic acid isomers.