Extended Live Imaging of Female Drosophila melanogaster Germline Stem Cell Niches

We are interested in discovering new cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling the stemness of cells. Our main aim is to decipher how stem cells avoid differentiation in the niches. Since we are working under experimental conditions, it is essential to preserve tissue integrity to ensure that GSCs receive a physiological behavior.

Our protocol maintains a healthy and functional GSC niche enabling the monitoring of dividing GSCs as they would be in vivo. The use of extended life imaging allow us to study the entire cell cycle of GSCs and spectrosome dynamics. Specifically, we successfully characterize the spectrosome changes across the cell cycle, a task that was previously difficult to achieve with fixed images or shorter imaging periods.