Drep-1P homozygous egg chambers from animals subjected to starvation conditions to induce mid-oogenesis programmed cell death display abnormal chromatin compaction, and nurse cell nuclei persist until late stages of degeneration. An elongated egg chamber morphology is observed. Eventually most follicle cells degenerate, and small sacs of nurse cell nuclei are observed.
28% of stage 14 egg chambers show persistant nurse cell nuclei, compared to 7% in controls.
Embryonic cells of mutant embryos do undergo apoptosis after exposure to X rays (as occurs in wild-type cells exposed to X rays) but the apoptosis is not accompanied by DNA fragmentation in the mutant cells.
68% of Drep-1P; DNaseIIlo double mutant stage 14 egg chambers show persisting nurse cell nuclei, enhanced compared to each single mutant phenotype. The persisting DNA is smeared as observed in DNaseIIlo mutants, unlike the discrete nuclei observed in wild-type and Drep-1P single mutants. 3% of egg chambers display a dumpless phenotype where nurse cell cytoplasm has not been transferred to the oocyte.