Toxicity of Sulfamethoxazole in Model Organism Drosophila melanogaster

Sulfamethoxazole, a sulfonamide group antibiotic, has been used to prevent bacterial infections for clinical and agricultural purposes. Due to its wide use, sulfamethoxazole has been detected in waste streams. In terms of aquatic toxicity, negative impact of sulfamethoxazole on non-target model organisms has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the drug was also detected in edible crops due to its high mobility in the soil up to 1 mg/L. Therefore, toxicity of sulfamethoxazole at different trophic levels is important task to be investigated. In this manner, Drosophila melanogaster is valuable model organism to investigate toxicity of environmental pollutants. Present study showed that environmentally relevant sulfamethoxazole concentrations significantly reduced survival of larvae and adults of D. melanogaster. Moreover, adult longevity was reduced from 16.5 days to 6 and 2.5 days in response to dietary sulfamethoxazole exposure at 120 and 1200 μg/L. To further confirm the negative impact of environmental sulfamethoxazole comet assay was performed upon lethal and sublethal exposure. It was revealed that lethal concentrations of sulfamethoxazole dramatically increased tail DNA%, tail moment and tail length compared to control group. Altogether, present study showed that environmentally relevant sulfamethoxazole has negative impact on survivorship of D. melanogaster and is associated induced DNA damage. Therefore, present results serve as vital background information to reveal toxicity of sulfamethoxazole on D. melanogaster which is one of the most reliable model organisms in tracing toxicity of environmentally pollutants such as widely used antibiotics detected in agricultural fields that may threaten public health.