Ring canals in the Drosophila Ovary

During oogenesis in Drosophila, each egg chamber includes 15 nurse cells that remain attached to each other and to the single oocyte by cytoplasmic bridges between the cells. These bridges or ring canals are kept open by the actin-containing rings shown in yellow here. In the lab of Steve Beckendorf in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, we are studying a novel signaling pathway that includes the Tec29 tyrosine kinase and is required for the growth of the ring canals as oogenesis proceeds. (Actin is shown in red. HTS, a protein restricted to the ring canals, is shown in green. As shown by the yellow color, actin and HTS are colocalized in the ring canals).

Photo submitted by Steve Beckendorf