The Last Leg Of TRIP by Maegan Sojan

The end is near! With six weeks down and six more days to go until the symposium, it’s unbelievable that my TRIP journey is coming to an end. Before the program, I barely knew the difference between a fruit fly and a house fly, and now, I’ve gotten comfortable enough to sort over 1,000 flies and perform various assays successfully! When we last spoke, I intended to investigate whether glyphosate could have long-term effects on the health and female fertility of future generations. Little has changed since then, however, I decided to conduct the larval motility assay in addition to the female fertility. 

To do so, I set up four vials for each replicate. The first one served as the control, the second was contaminated with glyphosate, the third contained turmeric, and the fourth had a mixture of both drugs. Throughout the six weeks, I collected several metrics such as development, overall health, and fertility. For each replicate set up, the larval motility assay was performed on day seven. This assay looked at the impact of glyphosate and turmeric on 3rd instar larva. Additionally, female fertility for the P1 (Parent) Generation was recorded on the same day. Although a lengthy protocol to carry out, it refined my microscope skills in order to count the unhatched versus hatched embryos! The following week, I performed the female fertility assay again, only this time, I did it on the F1 (Offspring) Generation to determine any long-term effects. 

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What I found was quite shocking. The adult flies who had been transferred to this new environment saw slight to no improvements in female fertility. However, their offspring saw a significant decrease in fertility, with these flies producing a quarter of embryos as compared to their parents. Furthermore, the larva’s overall health declined as compared to the control when exposed to glyphosate. Turmeric was not able to counter these effects, and in fact, the combination of both the pesticide and natural spice made matters worse in regards to offspring fertility. In a broader scope, these results indicate and confirm my previous suspicions. Exposure to pesticides doesn’t seem to have an effect on female fertility, if the person hasn’t grown up on it. However, the future generations seem to be impacted the most, and natural supplementation doesn’t seem to negate those effects.  

But ultimately, I’ve come to the conclusion that although this journey is coming to an end, another begins! TRIP has not only equipped me with new lab skills but also the ability to collaborate with others and challenge myself. I’ve learned so much more than what I had anticipated, and I couldn’t have done it without our instructors, the TAs, and my labmates. I hope to continue finding the intersections between my passions and using science as a means to further explore them. Thank you for coming along the ride, and I can’t wait to see where my next TRIP is!