Protective effects of the endemic plant Iris taochia against alkylating agent-induced genotoxicity in the Drosophila melanogaster SMART assay.

Exposure to environmental mutagens can induce genetic damage and contribute to the development of various diseases, including cancer. Therefore, identifying natural compounds capable of mitigating mutagen-induced genotoxicity has become an important research focus in environmental toxicology. In the present study, the antigenotoxic potential of the endemic plant Iris taochia Woronow ex Grossh. (Iridaceae) was investigated against DNA damage induced by alkylating agents using the in vivo model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Initially, aqueous, ethanol, and methanol extracts of the plant were comparatively evaluated in terms of phytochemical composition and antioxidant capacity through total phenolic and flavonoid content determination, together with DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays. Among the tested extracts, the methanol extract exhibited the highest phenolic (85.4 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid (42.1 mg QE/g) contents, along with the strongest antioxidant activity. Based on these findings, the methanol extract of I. taochia (ITME) was selected for further biological evaluation. Antigenotoxic activity was assessed using the D. melanogaster wing Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART). Third-instar larvae were exposed to different concentrations of ITME (0.625-10 mg/mL) either alone or in combination with the mutagenic agents ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) and cyclophosphamide (CP). The extract alone did not induce any genotoxic effects at the tested concentrations. In contrast, EMS and CP significantly increased clone formation frequencies. Co-treatment with ITME reduced mutagen-induced genetic damage, with inhibition rates reaching 78.42% for CP in a concentration-dependent manner and up to 63.46% for EMS, for which the protective response was non-monotonic, peaking at 5 mg/mL and partially declining at 10 mg/mL. These findings demonstrate that the methanol extract of I. taochia possesses significant antigenotoxic activity; its phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity are proposed as a plausible, though not directly tested, contributing mechanism, highlighting its potential as a natural protective agent against environmentally induced genetic damage.