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Effect of caffeine on the radioresistance and radiosensitivity of Drosophila melanogaster

Maria Luiza Reguly; Edmundo Kanan Marques

Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 1953, 90001 Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Send correspondence to M.L.R.

ABSTRACT

The effect of pre-treatment with caffeine on the induction of lethal mutations was studied in the radioresistant CO₃ strain and the radiosensitive RC ₁ strain of Drosophila melanogaster. Treatment with caffeine alone had no mutagenic effect on either strain. However, pre-treatment with caffeine increased the frequency of lethal mutations induced by radiation in the resistant strain up to the level of the sensitive, non-pre-treated strain, while leaving unchanged the frequency of lethal mutations induced in the radiosensitive strain. As a result, the significant differences in lethal mutation induction existing between the two strains when treated with radiation alone were no longer present.
Two kinds of results were obtained when the effect of caffeine in combination with ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) was studied: when the frequency of induced lethal mutations was low, pre-treatment with caffeine increased the frequency in both strains, and when the frequency was high, a small increase was observed in the resistant strain and a small decrease in the sensitive one.
These results, taken 'as a whole, suggest that the difference in sensitivity between the two strains is due to differences in repair of premutational damage. This conclusion was further supported by the observation that pre-treatment with caffeine significantly increased the frequency of mutations induced in spermatozoa and spermatids and decreased that of EMS-treated spermatocytes. In addition, the much stronger effect on the resistant than on the sensitive strain supports the hypothesis of the existence of differences in repair levels in the two strains analyzed.

Keywords: caffeine; radioresistance; radiosensitivity; Drosophila melanogaster.

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