Drosophila Nurse Cells
Drosophila Nurse Cells
Xuefeng Meng
Yamashita Lab
Whitehead Institute
This image mainly shows the nurse cells in egg chambers of adult female fruit flies. The nurse cells surround the relatively small oocytes, synthesizing and depositing nutrients (proteins/RNAs, etc.) into oocytes to support their development. The majority of germ cells in female fruit flies are actually nurse cells, which play an essential “nursing role” to less abundant oocytes.
I took those images to compare female germline development in different genotypes, especially focusing on if the mutation of certain genes would impact this process.