According to a study, more than 13% of the total

cultivated land, about 40% of the lakes & rivers, and

around 0.24 billion hectares of the world’s

arable land are polluted by heavy metals.

Wastewater dumped from factories is a major source

of heavy metal pollution. This can contaminate our

crops，

cause heavy metals to 0.24 billion hectares in the

human

body，and even cause cancer！

In this case, we are going to establish a effective and

visible heavy

metal monitoring system called Drosophila Sentry

using transgenetic fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster)

carrying……

Abstracts:

We aim to develop a convenient and inexpensive visual monitoring system for heavy metal pllution by constructing transgenic Drosophila. We inserted MTF-1 gene driven by UAS and Hid gene driven by MRE in Drosophila S2 cells, respectively. These two transgenic Drosophila lines interbreed and the offspring with both MTF-1 and Hid genes cross with the Drosophila line with genotype GMR-GAL4 or Vg-GAL4 or ptc-GAL4 which express GAL4 during eye/wing development. In this way, we constructed three Drosophila lines with genotype UAS-MTF-1;MRE-Hid/GMR-GAL4, UAS-MTF-1;MRE-Hid/Vg-GAL4, and UAS-MTF-1;MRE-Hid/ptc-GAL4 which express MTF-1 during eye/wing development due to the GAL4-UAS system. In response to heavy metals in the environment, MTF-1 is activated, binds to MRE and activates Hid expression, leading to apoptosis in the developing eyes/wings. Thus, in the first generation within 5-10 days, these lines show abnormally small eye/wing sizes observable by naked eyes.

The system is sensitive, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly, requiring minimum equipment and professional personnel, and is especially of great value to remote and underdeveloped regions.