The Action of Ddt on the Golgi Bodies in Insects Nervous Tissue1

Abstract

The insecticide, 2, 2 bis-(paracholorophenyl)-l, 1, 1 trichloroethane which is commonly known as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). has proved to be one of the best insecticides ever discovered. Since the war, hundreds of published papers have given us the properties of DDT, such as its chemistry, its toxicity, its manufacture, as well as its application. But there are still many facts about DDT which we do not know. The mode of action of DDT is one of the problems which has attracted many scientists' attention. Up to now, we still do not know exactly how and why DDT kills insects. However we do know that it affects some parts of the insect nervous tissues. Many workers such as Bozkurt (1948), Hartzell (1945), Tobias et al., (1946, 1946a, 1946b) and Welsh and Gordon (1946, 1947) have done histological studies on DDT-treated insects. So far, as the author is aware, no one has studied extensively the internal changes of insect nerve cells that have been treated with DDT. There are, besides others, three important constituents in an insect nerve cell, namely, the Golgi bodies, mitochondria, and Nissl bodies. Anything which causes a change in these three structures could affect the functioning of the whole nervous system. Therefore, the author believes that it is worth while to study the action of DDT on these cell structures to find a way which may help to solve the problem of the mode of action of DDT.