Investigation of the Effect of 'Squalene' Triterpene on Somatic Mutations in Drosophila melanogaster by In vivo Wing Spot Test

Squalene (SKU) terpene, which belongs to the triterpenes group of secondary metabolites and is synthesized by plants, is frequently used in different fields such as cosmetics, medicine and food industry due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anticarcinogenic properties. SKU, are also preferred in alternative medicine methods because of their bioactivity. In this study, the possible genotoxic effects of SKU, which is used in many different areas and taken into the body by contact or oral route, were investigated depending on the dose-time interaction. Wild and mutant strains of Drosophila melanogaster, an important model organism, are used in research in the field of genetics. The genotoxic effect of SKU was determined by somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART) and multiple wing hair (mwh) and flare (flr3) mutant strains of Drosophila melanogaster were used. For this purpose, the analysis of the data of the application groups containing different concentrations of SKU (50, 100, 200 and 400 ppm) was statistically evaluated by comparing them with the dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) negative control group. According to the data obtained from the SMART result; while the clone induction frequency was 0.57 in the DMSO control group, this value was 0.41 for 50 ppm depending on the dose increase; 0.52 for 100 ppm; 0.93 for 200 ppm and 1.30 for 400 ppm. This increase in clone induction frequency can be considered as an indication that SKU induces somatic mutations and exhibits genotoxic effects.