Presenter: Holly Thelin, College of Life Sciences, Biology
Authors: Holly Elaine Thelin
Faculty Advisor: Danielle Taylor, College of Life Science, Biology
Institution: Utah Valley University
The pesticide Imidacloprid is a systemic insecticide meaning when taken up through the soil and into the plant, foraging insects, such as Honey Bees, ingest this. When ingested it causes damage to the nervous system among other things resulting in death. Sub-lethal amounts can create reactive oxygen species without causing death. I plan to use Drosophila first, as a model organism for honey bees. I will then perform the same experiments on Honey Bees to study the effect of sub-lethal amounts of Imidacloprid on their wing muscles. A unique feature of honey bee muscle tissue is that the mitochondria increase in number before they start foraging but don’t have repair mechanisms. I plan to use an antioxidant treatment to try protect the mitochondria from any damage caused by sub-lethal levels of Imidacloprid.