Figure 5: An antagonism between H1 and MOF in GSC maintenance.
(a,b) Control germarium (a) has two GSCs that can be identified by round spectrosomes (1B1; red) and attachment to the cap cells (asterisk). A loss of GSCs can be detected by 1B1 in mof germline overexpression flies (b). Note the prematurely differentiated germline cells neighbouring the cap cells identified by the branched fusome in b. (c) Quantification of the results in a,b showing that mof overexpression in the germline causes GSC loss. n=55 and n=70 for control and experimental groups, respectively. (d) Column chart quantifying the results of the overexpression of a lysine to arginine H4 mutant (H4K16R) on GSC maintenance. The number of spectrosome-containing undifferentiated single-germ cells (SCCs) has significantly increased in H4K16R germline overexpression germaria, compared with that in nos-GAL4/+ controls. n=21 and 24 for the two groups respectively. Data are shown as mean±s.e.m. and evaluated with Student’s t-test. (e–g) H1 and mof double knockdown under the nos driver (g) results in normal numbers of GSCs similar to the control (e), which shows that mof-KD rescues the GSC loss phenotype caused by germline H1KD (f). (h) Quantification of the results in e–g showing that mof-KD can rescue the GSC loss phenotype caused by H1KD in the germline. n=81, 114 and 103 for the three groups, respectively. (i) Quantification of 24-h egg production rates on the 4th, 5th and 6th day after eclosion (n=15 for each group, mean±s.d.). Note the H1 and mof double knockdown significantly increases egg production compared with H1 and GFP double knockdown flies. Germaria are from 3-day-old adult flies. Scale bars, 10 μm. DAPI, 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.
