nuclear chromosome & primary spermatocyte
nuclear lamina | adult stage | male (with aly2)
aly2/aly5 adult heterozygote males show morphological defects of the nuclear lamina in stage S4-S6 spermatocytes (the lamina has distinctly more ballon-like shape, lacking the deformations that correlate with chromosome distribution seen in wild-type), while in stage S3 the lamina is of wild-type appearance.
Nucleolar organisation is altered in aly5 mutant testes cells.
Chromosomes in mutant primary spermatocytes are apposed to the nuclear envelope (as occurs in wild-type primary spermatocytes), but they are fuzzier and less well defined than in wild type.
Early stages of spermatogenesis up through mature primary spermatocytes are present and normal. Postmeiotic stages are completely absent. Mutant testes have an abundance of mature primary spermatocytes with large, round nuclei and prominent nucleoli. Spermatocytes arrest in the G2/M transition of meiosis I with partial chromosome condensation.
Morphologically, aly5 mutants expressing wucdsRNA.Scer\UAS under the control of Scer\GAL4bam.T:Hsim\VP16 are indistinguishable from single mutant testes. Nucleolar disorganisation, as found in aly5 mutants, is unaffected by expression of wucdsRNA.Scer\UAS.