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. 2015 Oct 28;112(45):13928–13933. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1509856112

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

lili is intrinsically required for GSC maintenance. (A) Illustration of Drosophila germarium highlighting germ line: GSC (magenta), CB (dark green), cysts (green and light green); and somatic cells of the niche: cap cells (CC; purple), terminal filament cells (TF; blue), and escort cells (EC; black). Follicle cells surrounding forming egg chambers are shown in light brown (FC). TFs and CCs show strong nuclear membrane staining with anti-Lamin C Ab and can be distinguished by their position and morphology at the anterior tip of the germarium. All germ-line cells express the cytoplasmic protein Vasa and can be distinguished by the presence of an intracellular structure (dark brown) detected by anti-Adducin Ab (1B1). This structure is called spectrosome and appears spherical in GSCs and CBs, whereas it is called fusome and appears branched across the interconnected cells of developing cysts. GSCs and CBs are distinguished by location: GSCs contact CCs and ECs, whereas CBs contact GSCs and ECs, but not CCs. (B) An illustration of predicted Lilipod topology. Isoforms A and B bear unique C termini (15 aa in A and 6 in B). (C–C′′) Anterior half of a liliP-eGFP.nls germarium stained for GFP (lili-reporter), Vasa (germ line), Lamin C (CC nuclear membrane), anti-1B1 (spectrosome/fusome), and DAPI (nuclei) as marked in images. Dashed outline mark TF and CCs, and one intercalating EC; none express lili-eGFP.nls. The continued presence of GFP in the differentiating germ line may reflect persistence of GFP protein. liliP-eGFP.nls must, however, be transcribed in GSCs. (D–G) Mosaic germaria containing clonal GSCs (β-gal negative) and progeny cysts (dashed outlines) at 3 (D) and 17 (E) d ACI stained with both anti-Lamin C and anti-1B1 (red) as well as anti–β-gal (green). (D and E) Mosaic germaria with control WT clones. (F and G) Mosaic germaria with lili2 homozygous mutant clonal GSCs and progeny at 3 d ACI (F), but only a clonal cyst and no lili2 mutant GSCs at 10 d ACI (G). (H) Progressive loss of lili mutant GSCs over time. Percentage of total germaria that contain at least one WT or mutant clonal GSC. (I) Expression of Lili (nos-Gal4vp16UASp-liliA) slows down lili mutant GSC loss. (Scale bars: 10 µm.)