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Review
. 2023:154:73-97.
doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.02.002. Epub 2023 Apr 6.

Polarity and axis formation in the Drosophila female germ line

Affiliations
Review

Polarity and axis formation in the Drosophila female germ line

Daniel St Johnston. Curr Top Dev Biol. 2023.

Abstract

By the time a Drosophila egg is laid, both major body axes have already been defined and it contains all the nutrients needed to develop into a free-living larva in 24 h. By contrast, it takes almost a week to make an egg from a female germline stem cell, during the complex process of oogenesis. This review will discuss key symmetry-breaking steps in Drosophila oogenesis that lead to the polarisation of both body axes: the asymmetric divisions of the germline stem cells; the selection of the oocyte from the 16-cell germline cyst; the positioning of the oocyte at the posterior of the cyst; Gurken signalling from the oocyte to polarise the anterior-posterior axis of the somatic follicle cell epithelium around the developing germline cyst; the signalling back from the posterior follicle cells to polarise the anterior-posterior axis of the oocyte; and the migration of the oocyte nucleus that specifies the dorsal-ventral axis. Since each event creates the preconditions for the next, I will focus on the mechanisms that drive these symmetry-breaking steps, how they are linked and the outstanding questions that remain to be answered.

Keywords: Centrosomes; Dpp; Dynein; Fusome; Gurken; Kinesin; Myosin; Oocyte; Par-1.

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