Cell function in the ovary of drosophila

Summary The relative DNA content of the ovarian nurse nuclei of Drosophila melanogaster has been measured by high-resolution autoradiography of DNA uniformly labelled with adenine-8-¹⁴C.The various nurse nuclei show a defined pattern of DNA classes. The posterior nuclei, i. e. those nearest to the oocyte, achieve eight reduplications of DNA by stages 8–9, thus reaching 512n, and all have lost some DNA by stage 10. The nuclei in the middle of the chamber achieve seven reduplications of DNA by stage 9, thus reaching 256n, and though there is loss of DNA in the majority of these nuclei at stage 10 some of them might enter a new reduplication cycle. The anterior nuclei, i. e. those more distant from the oocyte, achieve more than seven reduplications by stage 10 and show no loss of DNA.After stage 6 of the ovarian chambers the pattern of DNA enrichment and later degradation is clearly polarized in that there is a posterioranterior gradient for the level of ploidy, the order in time in which this is attained, and the loss of DNA. The dominant end of the gradient is towards the developing oocyte.The measured nuclear volume where DNA is present is well correlated with ploidy till stage 9. Compared with earlier stages, at stage 10 DNA shares less in the nuclear contents than other materials. The nuclear volume when calculated as a sphere is a gross overestimation, except for the earliest stages.Various possibilities likely to bring about differences in the amount of DNA among nurse nuclei within and between chambers are discussed.Research worker of the British Empire Cancer Campaign.