Figure 1.

Me31B forms heterogeneous P body condensates in the mature oocyte

(A) Schematic of a Drosophila female ovary and ovariole. Each female contains two ovaries, each comprising 16–18 ovarioles. Each ovariole can be thought of as an assembly line for the production of mature oocytes. The oocyte is supported by a collection of nurse cells until the late stages of oogenesis. Created with BioRender.com.

(B–E) Mature oocyte (∼ 0.5 mm in length) expressing Me31B::GFP.

(B) Cartoon depicting P body distribution in the mature oocyte and confocal image of a whole mature oocyte showing P bodies throughout the cytoplasm. The concentration of P bodies at the cortex is, in part, due to this being a cross section image.

(C) Increased magnification of P bodies in the mid-lateral area of the oocyte reveals they exhibit diverse morphologies and sizes. Maximum projection 10 μm.

(D) Representative image of P bodies exhibiting multiple subdomains (white arrowheads) indicative of heterogeneous internal organization.

(E) Aspect ratio analysis of individual P bodies (>1 μm) showing an uneven range of P body morphology (n = 20). Scale bar, 5 μm (C), 2 μm (D).