Germline Progenitors Escape the Widespread Phenomenon of Homolog Pairing during Drosophila Development
Figure 4
Germline progenitors contain large nuclear volumes with chromosomes juxtaposed to the nuclear envelope.
A, PGC nuclei (VASA, red) are larger than surrounding somatic nuclei in embryonic gonads 14 h AEL. DAPI, blue. Dashed circles denote nuclear periphery. Scale bar represents 10 µm. Right: Average nuclear volume of PGCs and surrounding somatic cells ± SEM. B, Average nuclear volume of germline and somatic follicle cells of the adult ovary ± SEM (**p<0.0001). C, Wild-type germarium stained for DNA (grey) and SXL (green). Shown on right are cross-sections of representative GSC and somatic nuclei with 3D and 2D (insets) surface plots displaying increased peripheral intensity in the nucleus of the GSC and more uniform intensity in the nucleus of the somatic cell. Scale bar represents 10 µm in the image of the germarium and 5 µm in images of single nuclei. D, Left: GSC nucleus with FISH targeting 24D (red) and lamin staining (nuclear envelope, green). Scale bar represents 5 µm. Right: Average distance between FISH signals and the nuclear envelope (NE) ± SEM, normalized to the nuclear radius, in germline and somatic follicle cells of the adult ovary. Asterisks denote significant differences in the normalized distances between somatic and GSCs (*p<0.05, **p<0.0001). For each data point, a minimum number of 30 nuclei were scored (see Materials and Methods).