Author(s)

Hesham A. Yousef, Amira Afify, Hany M. Hasan, Afaf Abdel Meguid

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We measured in a comet assay the damage of DNA in the hemocytes of various stages of the grasshopper Schistocerca gregaria after ex-posing them to various doses of Cd and Pb in the food. The mechanisms of Cd and Pb toxicity for grasshopper are discussed. The accumula-tion of heavy metals and stage of the insect may play important roles in causing the DNA damage. S. gregaria may be considered a valuable bio-indicator for evaluation the genotoxicity of en-vironmental pollutants.

Comet Assay; Heavy Metals (Cd, Pb); DNA Damage; Schistocerca gregaria

Yousef, H. , Afify, A. , Hasan, H. and Meguid, A. (2010) DNA damage in hemocytes of Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae) exposed to contaminated food with cadmium and lead. Natural Science, 2, 292-297. doi: 10.4236/ns.2010.24037.