Eugenia uniflora L. (Myrtaceae family) has demonstrated several properties of human interest, including insecticide potential, due to its pro-oxidant properties. These properties likely result from the effects on its mitochondria, but the mechanism of this action is unclear. The aim of this work was to evaluate the mitochondrial bioenergetics function in Drosophila melanogaster exposed to E. uniflora leaf essential oil. For this, we used a high-resolution respirometry (HRR) protocol. We found that E. uniflora promoted a collapse of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm). In addition the essential oil was able to promote the disruption of respiration coupled to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and inhibit the respiratory electron transfer system (ETS) established with an uncoupler. In addition, exposure led to decreases of respiratory control ratio (RCR), bioenergetics capacity and OXPHOS coupling efficiency, and induced changes in the substrate control ratio. Altogether, our results suggested that E. uniflora impairs the mitochondrial function/viability and promotes the uncoupling of OXPHOS, which appears to play an important role in the cellular bioenergetics failure induced by essential oil in D. melanogaster.

中文翻译：

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尤金妮亚叶精油通过抑制氧化磷酸化促进果蝇线粒体功能障碍。


Eugenia uniflora L.（桃金娘科）已表现出多种人类感兴趣的特性，包括由于其促氧化特性而具有杀虫潜力。这些特性可能是由于对其线粒体的影响造成的，但这种作用的机制尚不清楚。这项工作的目的是评估暴露于 E. uniflora 叶精油的黑腹果蝇的线粒体生物能学功能。为此，我们使用了高分辨率呼​​吸测量（HRR）协议。我们发现 E. uniflora 促进了线粒体跨膜电位 (ΔΨm) 的崩溃。此外，精油能够促进与氧化磷酸化（OXPHOS）相关的呼吸破坏，并抑制通过解偶联剂建立的呼吸电子传递系统（ETS）。此外，暴露导致呼吸控制比（RCR）、生物能能力和OXPHOS耦合效率降低，并引起底物控制比的变化。总而言之，我们的结果表明，E. uniflora 损害线粒体功能/活力并促进 OXPHOS 解偶联，这似乎在黑腹果蝇精油诱导的细胞生物能衰竭中发挥重要作用。