testis (with Df(3L)vin7)
The ovarioles of newly eclosed homozygous females are very thin and show severe defects in gamete development. None of the ovarioles contain any 16-cell cysts, and 57% completely lack germ cells. 60% of ovarioles of newly eclosed pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 females completely lack germ cells, 23% contain only one or two germ cells and the remaining 17% have only 3 to 6 germ cells. The proportion of agametic germaria increases with age in homozygous and pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 females. Those germaria that do contain germ cells contain only one or two at the very tip of the germarium (suggesting that they are stem cells).
The ovaries of homozygous and pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 third instar larvae are similar to those of wild-type larvae. However, the number of germ cells in pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 pupae 1-2 hours after puparium formation (APF) has not increased significantly with respect to the number in third instar larvae, in contrast to the situation in wild-type pupae at this stage. 12 hours APF, the germ cells in the mutant ovarioles have partitioned into the normal number of distinct ovarioles, but by this stage, 15% of the mutant ovarioles already completely lack germ cells. By 24 hours APF, 24% of the mutant ovarioles lack germ cells. The mutant ovaries do not show an increase in germline cell number as the pupae age, so that by 48 hours APF, 33% of the ovarioles lack germ cells.
Round spectrosomes are often found in abnormal positions, far from the apical germ cell membrane, in pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 ovaries analysed at 24-30 hours APF. Two-cell ovoid fusomes are seen connecting dividing cystoblasts in the mutant ovarioles, as occurs in wild type. Elongated wild-type fusomes are also seen in the mutant ovarioles, although in 57% of cases they are not connected to the terminal filament cells.
Testes of pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 third instar larvae are smaller than those of controls and devoid of large germline cysts. A total of 50-60 germ cells are present in a cortical monolayer in the dorsal region of the mutant testis, and only two-cell fusomes are seen. During pupal development, the germ cells in the mutant testis do not change their position inside the testis, but their number gradually decreases. Testes of newly emerged pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 males are shorter and thinner than normal and have very few germ cells randomly disposed inside the gonad. The number of germ cells dramatically decreases in the mutant males as they age, and all testes of 10 day old homozygous and pagS026332/Df(3L)vin7 males lack germ cells.
Separable from: P{lacW}S026332.
The "0263/32" line contains both the P{lacW}S026332 insertion at 94A5--94A10 on chromosome arm 3R and the pagS026332 mutation which causes sterility and maps to the 68C--69A1 region on chromosome arm 3L.
