Metabolism of DDT in Musca Domestica

Abstract

Considerable progress has been made since 1950, demonstrating that enzymic detoxication of DDT is the primary mechanism responsible for DDT resistance in the housefly, Musca domestica. Kearns and his colleagues isolated the enzyme DDT dehydrochlorinase from resistant houseflies. They demonstrated a correlation between the levels of resistance to DDT in various strains of houseflies and the DDT - dehydrochlorinase activity in homogenates of those strains. The aim of this thesis, is to investigate the metabolism of DDT in vivo, using four moderately resistant strains and a susceptible strain of houseflies, ascess their suitability as a source of the enzyme DDT - dehydrochlorinase and use the gas-liquid chromatographic assay for inhibition studies on the enzyme.