Mid- and late-stage ring canals of homozygous females are disorganised and have a reduced lumen.

Ring canal diameter and length of stage 5 to 8 egg chambers are greater than those measured in wild type females. Ring canal diameter and length increase ahead of schedule. Nurse cells degenerate prematurely variably between stage 8 and 10, well before nurse cell dumping should occur. Actin filament bundles stray away from the margins into the canal proper. The canal proper looks like it contains a network of bundles and is never completely occluded but does allow movement of organelles through the canal. Results suggest the failure to produce eggs is not simply due to occlusion but is instead somehow related to the degeneration of the nurse cells and oocyte at stages before nurse cell dumping.

kel mutant egg chambers have ring canals that are obstructed by disordered actin and hts product.

Egg chambers defective for early, slow, and late, fast cytoplasm transport into the oocyte. As early as stage 7 of oogenesis oocyte is smaller than wild type. Mutant egg cytoplasm looks rough and irregular. The small oocytes are surrounded by egg shell where dorsal appendages are shorter and fatter than wild type and sometimes fused dorsally. In the most extreme cases the anterior of the egg is open forming a cup shape. The small eggs usually degenerate in the ovary.