Our project 1 Niki 刘雅宸

Model organisms have been extensively used to unravel basic and conserved
biological processes. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster (hereinafter Drosophila),
is one of the most studied eukaryotic organisms and has made fundamental
contributions to different areas of biology. Drosophila have many advantages in the
laboratory, such as a short life cycle, easy handling and inexpensive maintenance.
Using molecular biology construct a carrier, to express the transcription factor MTF-
1, which is specific to heavy metal response in particular organs of drosophila. By
combining MTF-1with apoptosis(Hid) and genes that controlling eyes or wings size
of drosophila,promote the transcription and expression of reporter genes that control
the size of drosophila’ s eyes or wings under different heavy metal concentration.
Finally, through the strong and weak of phenotype caused by reporter genes, we can
judge the heavy metal content in water samples. Finally realize visual monitoring of
environmental heavy metal pollution. The social value of this research is really high.
It can solve the problems of expensive testing equipment, complicated technology,
high cost, and not suitable for remote areas.

Reference:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5535947/
(2) https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Drosophila_melanogaster/
(3) Zhang, B., Egli, D., Georgiev, O., & Schaffner, W. (2001). The Drosophila
Homolog of Mammalian Zinc Finger Factor MTF-1 Activates Transcription in
Response to Heavy Metals. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 21(14), 4505-4514.
(4) Li, X., Sun, Y., Gao, S., Li, Y., Liu, L., & Zhu, Y. (2023). Taste coding of heavy
metal ion-induced avoidance in Drosophila. iScience, 26(5), 106607.