Fig. 3: Larval thoracic ensheathing glial cells can divide to generate adult brain ensheathing glia.
Representative images are shown. a Control third instar larvae with nuclei of ensheathing glia labelled [83E12-Gal4, UAS-Lam::GFP]. Nuclei are stained using DAPI. The boxed area is shown in high magnification in (b). c Adult control brain. The number of ensheathing glial nuclei is quantified in (m, n, n = 5 brains for all genotypes). d–f Expression of an activated FGF-receptor leads to an increase in the number of larval ensheathing glia in larval thoracic neuromeres (arrowheads). The white boxed area is shown in higher magnification (e). g–i Upon expression of string dsRNA in all ensheathing glia the number of larval ensheathing glial cells is slightly reduced. For quantification see (m). The boxed area in the larval CNS (g) is shown in high magnification in (h). i Expression of string dsRNA in all ensheathing glia reduces the number of ensheathing glial cells in the adult CNS. j–l A similar reduction in the number of ensheathing glial cells is observed following expression of fzr. The boxed area in (j) is shown in high magnification in (k). Scale bars larval CNS (a, b, d, e, g, h, j, k) are 50 µm, scale bars for adult CNS (c, f, i, l) are 100 µm. Quantification of the ensheathing glial cell number in five larval brains (m) and in five adult brains (n) using Imaris (unpaired t-test, two-tailed). The standard deviation is indicated. The optic lobes and the tract ensheathing glial cells were excluded in the quantification. For larva: control – stringdsRNA: *p = 0.0192; control – fzr: **p = 0.0013; control - λhtl: ****p =< 0.0001; for adult: control – stringdsRNA: ***p = 0.0002; control – fzr: **p = 0.0018; control - λhtl: **p = 0.0057. (O) Quantification of DAPI intensity in 30 larval abdominal, 30 larval thoracic, and 10 adult thoracic ensheathing glial and neuronal nuclei. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
