What I Did
In this poster, our group looked at the roles select Cytochrome P450 genes and their levels of expression throughout the midgut may play in insecticide resistance in Drosophila melanogaster. We determined that high levels of expression of these select genes correlate with better insecticide resistance, and that the expression of these genes was highest in the a1, p1, and p2_4 regions of the midgut, suggesting that these regions play an important role in insecticide resistance and disposal.
How You Can Help
Further study should be conducted on other Cytochrome P450 genes. The exact pathways by which these genes and expression levels participate in insecticide resistance is not well understood, calling for further investigation. How this data can be tied to human responses to insecticides should also be evaluated. We also couldn’t observe how expression levels change in response to insecticide exposure, or the heritability of resistance via Cytochrome P450 genes.
My favorite part of the project was investigating and researching all of the different Cytochrome P450 genes in FlyBase!