Determination of Metal Content in Drosophila melanogaster During Metal Exposure

Trace metal elements, such as zinc, iron, copper, and manganese, play catalytic or structural roles in many enzymes and numerous proteins, and accordingly, contribute to a variety of fundamental biological processes. During the past decade, the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has become an important model organism for elucidating metal homeostasis in metazoan. We have been using Drosophila as a model to study metal metabolism for many years and have optimized simple and robust assays for determining the metal content in Drosophila, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the activity assay of enzymes dependent on metals, and staining metal ions in tissues of Drosophila. In this chapter, we present the step-by-step detailed methods for detecting the metal content in Drosophila melanogaster during metal toxicity study.