Creating Molecular Pesticides Against Olive Fruit Flies

Student Name: Irene Lin

UCD Department: Department of Chemistry

UCD Mentor: Dr. Dean Tantillo

Creating a pesticide against the olive fruit fly, which damages olives and affects the quality of olive oil. Irene is working on this project by using computer software to build molecules and test how well they work. An effective pesticide would have a large positive impact on the California olive oil industry, which produces a majority of American olive oil.

Two parental and 16 F2 offspring nematode lines were studied using polymerase chain reactions, restriction enzyme digestions, and agarose gel electrophoresis. Analysis of the final banding patterns allowed for comparison of parental and offspring mitochondrial DNA.

Results showed that paternal mitochondrial inheritance did not occur in any of the offspring lines. Even so, the limited sample size makes further experimentation necessary in order to conclude whether ever paternal inheritance occurs. Even more analysis is required to determine whether nematodes’ amoeboid sperm is responsible for this phenomenon.