Analysis of Actomyosin Dynamics at Local Cellular and Tissue Scales Using Time-lapse Movies of Cultured <i>Drosophila</i> Egg Chambers

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Ivana Viktorinova - , Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (Author)
  • Robert Haase - , Core Facility Bio-image Analysis, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (Author)
  • Tobias Pietzsch - , Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (Author)
  • Ian Henry - , Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (Author)
  • Pavel Tomancak - , Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (Author)

Abstract

Drosophila immature eggs are called egg chambers, and their structure resembles primitive organs that undergo morphological changes from a round to an ellipsoid shape during development. This developmental process is called oogenesis and is crucial to generating functional mature eggs to secure the next fly generation. For these reasons, egg chambers have served as an ideal and relevant model to understand animal organ development.Several in vitro culturing protocols have been developed, but there are several disadvantages to these protocols. One involves the application of various covers that exert an artificial pressure on the imaged egg chambers in order to immobilize them and to increase the imaged acquisition plane of the circumferential surface of the analyzed egg chambers. Such an approach may negatively influence the behavior of the thin actomyosin machinery that generates the power to rotate egg chambers around their longer axis.Thus, to overcome this limitation, we culture Drosophila egg chambers freely in the media in order to reliably analyze actomyosin machinery along the circumference of egg chambers. In the first part of the protocol, we provide a manual detailing how to analyze the actomyosin machinery in a limited acquisition plane at the local cellular scale (up to 15 cells). In the second part of the protocol, we provide users with a new Fiji-based plugin that allows the simple extraction of a defined thin layer of the egg chambers' circumferential surface. The following protocol then describes how to analyze actomyosin signals at the tissue scale (>50 cells). Finally, we pinpoint the limitations of these approaches at both the local cellular and tissue scales and discuss its potential future development and possible applications.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages20
JournalJoVE
Issue number148
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 31205315
Scopus 85068211860

Keywords

Keywords

  • Developmental Biology, Drosophila oogenesis, Issue 148, Actomyosin, Actomyosin quantification/analysis, Cell segmentation, Data processing, Egg chambers, Follicle cells, Follicle epithelium, Image registration, myosin II, Organogenesis, Selective surface projection/extraction