Stage-specific apoptotic patterns during Drosophila oogenesis

Hsp60C is required in follicle as well as germline cells during oogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Nearly half of stage 7-8 egg chambers from Hsp60C 1 /Hsp60C 1 or Hsp60C 1 /Df(2L)Cl-h2 female flies showed a variety of other defects in addition to the disorganized follicle cell layer (see Table 1) and in agreement with the stage 7-8 of Drosophila oogenesis being a developmental checkpoint (Buszczak and Cooley, 2000;Nezis et al, 2000), most of these severely affected egg chambers did not develop further and degenerated (Fig. 4C).…”

Illuminating the role of caspases during Drosophila oogenesis

“…We looked carefully at stage 13 egg chambers because of reports in the literature that nurse cell nuclei become TUNELpositive [3][4][5] …”

“…During oogenesis, the nurse cells gradually transport maternal components to the oocyte, and then finally extrude all their remaining cytoplasmic contents into the oocyte, after which the nurse cell remnants die. [3][4][5] The mechanism of nurse cell death in flies is unclear. Importantly, even though they are directly connected to the oocyte by intercellular bridges (ring canals) throughout most of oogenesis, the oocyte survives while the nurse cells die.…”

“…9,10 One electron microscopy investigation documents follicle cells engulfing stage 13 nurse cell fragments. 5 When an effector caspase (death caspase-1 (dcp-1), FBgn 0010501) mutant was found, 11 germline clones lacking dcp-1 were unable to complete nurse cell cytoplasm transport, suggesting caspase involvement in nurse cell function.…”

“…Cell death in both these stages displays the hallmarks of apoptosis such as TUNEL-positive nuclei, cell membrane blebbing, and chromatin condensation. 5,12,19,21 One complicating issue with regard to the examination of apoptosis is the presence of multiple caspase genes. In Drosophila, there are several caspase genes and thus redundancy could be masking their involvement in oogenesis.…”