Description

During extreme winter fruit fly ovaries undergo developmental arrest called diapause. A pair of such ovaries shown here degenerate old egg production units (fire hue) while preserving younger units (green hue at the tip) containing stem cells to help over-winter by extending reproductive life.

During environmental extremes, many organisms from invertebrates to mammals undergo a paused development called diapause. Fruit fly ovaries undergo a suspended state of development “a pause” only to resume or “play” once conditions become favorable. Stem cell maintenance through diapause extends female fertility making it an apt model to study aging. Thus, studying diapause in fruit flies can give insights into how to extend lifespan? or how to age gracefully?

Confocal image of developmentally arrested fruit fly ovaries dissected out and stained to detect dying egg chambers (fire-colored anti-Active Caspase staining) along with germ cell marker (green colored anti-Vasa staining). The image was processed using ImageJ software.