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First published online 6 December 2006
doi: 10.1242/dev.02729

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Oskar controls morphology of polar granules and nuclear bodies in Drosophila

Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-0159, USA.

View larger version (45K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Oskimm dictates polar granule morphology. Granule morphology revealed by signal from GFP-Aub at (A,F) egg-lay, (B,G) pole bud formation, (C,H) syncytial blastoderm, (D,I) cellular blastoderm and (E,J) gastrulation. A and F are at lower magnification to show the majority of the polar plasm. (K,L) Enlargements of granules shown in E and J, respectively. Maternal genotypes: A-E, K, osk54/+; F-J, L, P[oskimm]/+; osk54/Df. In early embryos, the granules of all genotypes appear essentially the same: small, sand-like and spread throughout the cytoplasm. At cellular blastoderm and gastrulation, polar granules in control embryos with either a single endogenous copy of osk+ (D,E) or no endogenous osk and a single copy of the P[osk+] transgene (data not shown) have the characteristic wild-type `donut' appearance. In P[oskimm]/+; osk54/Df (I,J) or P[oskimm3'mel]/+; osk54/Df (data not shown) embryos, the granules fail to form `donuts' and fuse into one area of granule material per cell. When seen as serial projections, these areas of granule material appear as a single continuous aggregate. Scale bar: 2 µm for K,L.

View larger version (109K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Oskimm dominantly influences polar granule and nuclear body morphology. Pole cells displaying GFP-Aub (green) and immunostained for Osk (red) from cellular blastoderm stage (A,D) or gastrulation stage (B,C,E,F) embryos, with enlarged views of nuclear bodies in C and F. Embryos are from otherwise wild-type mothers bearing a single copy of the following transgenes: A-C, P[osk+]; D-F, P[oskimm]. P[osk+] polar granules are spherical (A,B). In the presence of both endogenous Osk and Oskimm (D,E), the polar granules fuse into one to three large aggregates. Nuclear bodies are normally spherical (C), but in P[oskimm] embryos (F) the nuclear bodies show deformations and discontinuities (arrows). Scale bars: A,B,D,E, 5 µm; C,F, 2 µm.

View larger version (98K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Short Oskimm controls polar granule morphology. Polar granule and nuclear body morphology in gastrulating embryos revealed by GFP-Aub (green) and immunostaining for Osk (red). Embryos are from otherwise wild-type mothers bearing a single copy of the following transgenes: (A) P[oskimm3'mel]; (B) P[M1L-oskimm3'mel], (C) P[M103L-oskimm3'mel]; (D) P[M103,106L-oskimm3'mel]. Polar granule morphology is shifted towards the D. immigrans type in A-C, but not D. Although there are spherical bodies in A-C, they are all in nuclei (i.e. nuclear bodies), and the cytoplasmic polar granules are not spherical. Scale bar: 5 µm.