Fruit fly ovarian follicles are shown in this confocal mirror image with an added rainbow effect. Researchers in the lab of Tina Tootle, PhD, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology, use fruit flies to study essential developmental and disease pathways. The ovaries provide clues to better understand the regulation and control of nuclear actin, as well as the regulation of collective cell migration events that occur within the individual follicles depicted in the ovariole and that are essential to the fertility of the female fruit fly. The rainbow marks the nucleus of the cell types—somatic epithelium (smaller cells) and cells of the germline (larger cells). White indicates the cortical actin between the cells. Emily Fox, graduate research assistant in the Tootle lab, supplied the image.
