Behaviour and reproduction of Drosophila melanogaster exposed to 3.6 GHz radio-frequency electromagnetic fields
Insects are exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by wireless telecommunication networks. A part of these fields will be absorbed by these insects. This absorption might have biological effects, depending on the amount of absorbed power. It is currently unknown at what level of absorption this might occur. To investigate this, we used RF dosimetry of adult Drosophila melanogaster flies, which we combined with two assays studying the locomotor activity and fecundity of D. melanogaster exposed to electromagnetic fields at 3.6 GHz. To perform dosimetry, we created a 3D digital twin of an adult fly using micro-CT scans of a female D. melanogaster. We used this model in numerical EM simulations to estimate the absorbed power in the fly as a function of RF frequency in the far field of an antenna and during the two experimental assays at 3.6 GHz. In the behavioural experiments, no effects were found on the locomotor activity for a 5-day exposure to RF field values between 5.4 and 9 V/m, which correspond to 3.56 nW to 9.88 nW absorbed power. We also did not find any effects on fecundity, at an absorption level of 1.91 mW for 48h at 3.6 GHz. In our future work, we aim to investigate possible exposure effects at higher frequencies and exposures, and for immature stages.
Authors
- Duncan Bell
- A Mohiuddin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8713-6770)
- Menelaos C. Stavrinides (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6459-1941)
- Arno Thielens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8089-6382)
- Eline De Borre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3890-9629)
- Jürg Fröhlich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5923-3410)
- Anke Huss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-1867)
- Zoi Thanou
- Fani Hatjina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6506-5874)
- Herman Wijnen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8710-5176)
- Marco Zahner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6162-8860)
- Christelle Lasbleiz
- Antonios E. Tsagkarakis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0964-4681)
- Orestis L. Katsamenis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4367-4147)
- Anastasia Kalapouti
- Pieterjan De Boose
- Andri Varnava
- Felipe Oliveira Ribas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0433-4542)
- Maria Bouga
- Elham Alshamrani
- Lewis Blackwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8275-2227)
- Pantelitsa Georgiadou
Institutions
- Agricultural University of Athens (GR)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- University of Suffolk (GB)
- Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (GR)
- Inserm (FR)
- École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR)
- Cyprus University of Technology (CY)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- Ghent University (BE)
- CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (US)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLoS ONE
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336228
- Primary Topic
- Electromagnetic Fields and Biological Effects
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- University of Southampton
- European Commission
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council