What is it about?
By using a model organism Drosophila melanogaster, it has been shown that dietary exposure of sodium nitrite , which is widely used as a food preservative, contribute to developmental abnormalities.The results of this study indicate that the exposure of this food preservative to developing organisms may bring about a number of deletorious consequences such as developmental delay , decrease in progeny number , chromosomal mutations etc.
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Why is it important?
Due to considerable genetic homology between human and Drosophila melanogaster, it is possible that dietary consumption of sodium nitrite may bring about analogous detrimental changes in developing human also.
Perspectives
In my opinion pregnant human females should avoid the consumption of preserved meet, cheese etc. in which sodium nitrite is used commonly to minimize the risks of teratogenic effects.
Ashim Basak
Institute of Genetic Engineering, Kolkata, India
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Impacts of dietary exposure to sodium or potassium salts of nitrate and nitrite on the development of Drosophila melanogaster, Interdisciplinary Toxicology, October 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/intox-2017-0012.
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