The ovaries of E2fⁱ¹/Df(3R)e-BS2 females are smaller than wild-type but have the normal complement of nurse and follicle cells. Occasionally, degenerating early egg chambers (stage 8 and earlier) are seen. The predominant defects in E2fⁱ¹/Df(3R)e-BS2 females are a failure of nurse cells to deposit their contents into the oocyte and degenerate and an increased amount of heterochromatic DNA in the nurse cell nuclei. In stage 12 E2fⁱ¹/Df(3R)e-BS2 egg chambers the nurse cell nuclear envelope does not break down as normal. In E2fⁱ¹/E2f⁰⁷¹⁷² egg chambers, unlike wild-type (where nurse cells undergo apoptosis during stages 12 to 13 and have degenerated by stage 14), a cluster of nurse cells remain attached to the stage 14 oocyte and having failed to under go apoptosis. Some mutant eggs chambers, one or a few persisting nurse cells do show signs of apoptosis, but not until stage 14. E2fⁱ¹ mutant mothers lay few eggs. In the rare cases in which mature eggs are laid most are unfertilized, apparently due to defects in chorion structure. The few fertilized embryos arrest in early division cycles.

Hemizygotes have reduced viability and have eye and bristle defects. Hemizygous females are sterile, they lay eggs but the eggs do not develop. E2fⁱ¹/E2fⁱ² flies are fully viable and fertile. E2fⁱ¹/E2f⁹¹ flies produce thin eggshells. Subnuclear BrdU incorporation is either absent or reduced in the follicle cells of hemizygous egg chambers.