Table I.

Actin Cables in Drosophila Nurse Cells

Class		Adjoining cells		Length of plasma membrane		Number of cell–cell pairs		Actin bundles per μm
				μm		n
1		Nurse/oocyte		370		4		0.41 ± 0.07
2		Nurse/nurse		844		18		0.62 ± 0.08
3		Nurse/nurse (no RC)		100		3		0.03 ± 0.02
4		Nurse/follicle		267		4		0.02 ± 0.01

Nurse cell actin cables seen in confocal optical sections (5 μm) from four phalloidin-stained, wild-type stage 10B egg chambers were counted. The nurse cell plasma membranes were adjacent to the oocyte (class 1), to other nurse cells (class 2 and 3), or to surrounding follicle cells (class 4). Several adjacent nurse cells (class 3) were not connected by ring canals (RC). An example of each class is highlighted in Fig. 2 a. The length of the plasma membrane examined (μm) and the number of cell–cell pairs (n) are given for each class. The average number of actin cables per μm of membrane is given ± SEM. Actin cables are much more abundant along nurse cell plasma membranes containing ring canals (class 1 and 2).