Colorful or Colorfool: The Effect of Artificial and Natural Food Dye on C. Elegans

Overview

Food colorants are common in our diets. They are found in candies, beverages, and medicines. Recent studies suggest a link between artificial food colorants and negative behavioral patterns in children. Natural food colorants such as red beet powder, turmeric, and blueberry powder may provide a suitable alternative to artificial colors such as Red #40, Yellow #6, and Blue #1. Caenorhabditis elegans is a non-parasitic worm with a completely mapped genome that is often used as a model organism in toxicity and behavioral experiments due to its short life span and easily measurable behavioral traits. This study investigated the behavioral impact of artificial and natural food colorants on C. elegans and it was hypothesized that artificial colorants would have more negative consequences on the behavior, mortality, and fecundity of the worms. A chemotaxis experiment was used to test the tendency of the worms to migrate to or away from yellow and red artificial and natural food colorants. The chemotaxis response to varying concentrations of each dye, as well as sterile deionized water, was tested. A dose response experiment at 1%, 0.1%, and 0.01% each of artificial Red #40, natural red beet, artificial Yellow #6, and natural yellow turmeric food colorants was also conducted. Worm behavior, mortality, and fecundity were recorded over a five-day period to test if the colorants had any adverse effects. Chemotaxis data did not suggest any preference or avoidance when exposed to any artificial or natural colorant since worms were evenly spread through different concentrations of each colorant. Dose response experimental data was inconclusive due to missing worms and difficulty ascertaining egg and worm position due to colorants, although it was noticed that worm egg-laying when exposed to the artificial and natural red colorants was lower than that of the control. Future work will include repeating the experiment to test for reproducibility and statistical significance, testing other artificial and natural food colorants, and testing the effects of exposure over multiple generations of worms.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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