Summary of the science
The development of tissues and organs in living organisms involves the coordinated interaction between different types of cells. Dr Classens and her team studied how this coordination happens during the formation of eggs in the fruit fly. Oogenesis is the process by which eggs (oocytes) are formed. During this process, the oocyte develops within a group of supporting cells called nurse cells, which provide nourishment to the growing egg before being removed. They are further surrounded by a layer of somatic cells that are specialised to either help the oocyte grow or aid in the removal of these nurse cells. They found that a specific gene called Eya controls how these cells coordinate these processes. Essentially, it helps cells organise themselves properly so that the right cells come into contact with each other to form the desired shapes, tissues and organs.
About the research
Dr Classens and her team investigate how the epithelial tissues (e.g. skin, colon, lung) in our body serve as a barrier between the external and internal environments. They are particularly interested in how they interact and respond to challenges, like stress, injury and tumours, using drosophila as their model organism.
Cooperative morphogenesis of cell lineages is what governs the development of organs and these barriers, and they found that the transcriptional regulator Eya, which is of somatic origin, controls the bilateral affinity between somatic and germline cells in Drosophila oogenesis. Using functional studies and mathematical modelling, they demonstrated that the varying affinity between different cell types and the forces it generates play a crucial role in redistributing somatic cells across the germline surface. These forces also control the growth of oocytes and ensure they are properly matched with their respective somatic cells.
About the illustration
Egg chamber morphogenesis has three phases with distinct soma-germline matching dynamics, so we decided to represent these stages using the surrounding outlines to indicate different levels of Eya expression patterns, as affinity dynamics are based on measured Eya levels. The cells surrounding the egg chamber are coloured differently, depending on the type of cells.