Journal
CELL DEATH AND DIFFERENTIATION
Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages 1950-1959Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/sj.cdd.4401892
Keywords
oogenesis; nurse cell; caspase; apoptosis; germline; CFP; YFP; Drosophila melanogaster; phagocytosis; follicle cell
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Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [GM043301] Funding Source: Medline
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Cell death is a prominent feature of animal germline development. In Drosophila, the death of 15 nurse cells is linked to the development of each oocyte. In addition, females respond to poor environmental conditions by inducing egg chamber death prior to yolk uptake by the oocyte. To study these two forms of cell death, we analyzed caspase activity in the germline by expressing a transgene encoding a caspase cleavage site flanked by cyan fluorescent protein and yellow fluorescent protein. When expressed in ovaries undergoing starvation-induced apoptosis, this construct was an accurate reporter of caspase activity. However, dying nurse cells at the end of normal oogenesis showed no evidence of cytoplasmic caspase activity. Furthermore, although expression of the caspase inhibitors p35 or Drosophila inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 blocked starvation-induced death, it did not affect normal nurse cell death or overall oogenesis in well-fed females. Our data suggest that caspases play no role in developmentally programmed nurse cell death.
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