Figure 2.

dBACE mutant and knockdown flies show degeneration in the lamina. A, GMR-GAL4 control flies show an intact lamina neuropil (la n), which mostly consists of neuronal fibers, and lamina cortex (la c), which houses the cell bodies of the neuronal monopolar cells and various glial cells. The basement membrane, which separates the retina (re) from the lamina, is indicated by the white lines in the magnifications on the right side. B, C, Vacuoles have formed in the lamina cortex (arrowheads) after induction of the UAS-dBACE^RNAi construct via Appl-GAL (B, arrowheads) or GMR-GAL4 (C, arrowheads). A similar phenotype is detectable in flies carrying the dBACE²⁰⁴⁵ allele over the Df(2L)Exel7038 deficiency (D) or over the dBACE⁵²⁴³ allele (E). In addition, we can detect some vacuoles in the lamina neuropil of these flies (D, arrow). F, Quantification of the degeneration in the dBACE knockdown flies versus controls. G, The degeneration in the retinal dBACE knockdown increases significantly with aging (3-d-old knockdown flies are not significantly different from controls). H, Quantification of the degeneration in the dBACE point mutations compared with wild type Canton S (CS). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. A–E, All flies were 28 d old. Scale bar, 10 μm.