| Abstrak/Abstract |
The increasing ozone concentration in the upper stratosphere was not significant enough to be able to protect from the detrimental effect that ultraviolet (UV) light radiates. One solution to counter this problem is by using antioxidants as protectants, such as those contained in fruits. In order to elucidate that ability, experiments can be done using fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as the animal model. It is commonly used because it has physiological and pharmacological similarities with humans. This study aims to elucidate the effect of guava, which has a high amount of antioxidant, as a feeding medium on the survival rate and morphological changes of the reproductive organs of fruit flies after certain periods of UV exposure. The fruit fly culture was obtained from the Genetic Laboratory, Faculty of Biology, UGM. The experiments were performed with 2 hours of UV exposure and 2 feeding mediums (banana and guava) and a control (without UV exposure) also with 2 feeding mediums (banana and guava). Reproductive organs were isolated from 4 various treatments. Observations were made on the survival rate and morphological changes of the reproductive organs from the F1 generations. The results showed that UV exposure was capable of suppressing survival rate at larval stage by 44.38% (fed with banana) and 48.01% (fed with guava); at pupal stage by 57.55% (fed with banana) and 47.83% (fed with guava); and at the imago stage by 60.00% (fed with banana) and 13.93% (fed with guava). The UV exposure showed impacts on the morphology of the reproductive organs, and as UV protectant, guava gave better results compared to banana. |
