Fig 4. timp mutant ovarioles have altered physical properties.

(A) Subdivision of regions for AFM-based analysis of ovariole tissue stiffness. (B) Comparison of the apparent elastic modulus K at discrete points along 3–4 week old wild-type (n = 7) and timp null mutant ovarioles (n = 12) ex-vivo. Mutant ovarioles exhibited significantly lower levels of tissue stiffness throughout the regions tested. Differences were most severe in the germarium, early egg chambers and their associated interfollicular stalks. Results shown refer to an indentation depth of 0.2 μm. The image is a composite of several focal planes. ** = p values of two-tailed t-tests <0.01. See also S6 Fig.