Fig. 2: Increased mitochondrial activity in germ cells leads to GSC loss.

a Scheme of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase (PDH) complex regulation by Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Phosphatase (PDP) and Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase (PDK). b–f Confocal images of germaria from 7 day old-females stained with anti-Vasa (green), anti-Hts (red) and DAPI (blue). The white dashed line indicates two GSCs in a control nos-Gal4/+ germarium (b) and the yellow dashed lines indicate two GSCs in a nos-Gal4/UAS-Pdp-RNAi germarium (c) and a single GSC or differentiating cysts in the niche in nos-Gal4/UAS-Pdk-RNAi (d), nos-Gal4/spargel^EY05931 (e) and ewg^EY05137/+; nos-Gal4/+ (f) germaria, respectively. g Quantification of germaria showing GSC loss (0-1 GSC) 7 and 14 days after eclosion. The number of scored germaria (n) is indicated. ****p-value <0.0001, ns, non-significant using the χ² test. 7 days, p = 0.34 between wt and Pdp RNAi; 2.4e−6 between wt and Pdk RNAi; 1.0e−5 between wt and spargel^EY05931; 1.0e-5 between wt and ewg^EY05137. 14 days, p = 0.16 between wt and Pdp RNAi; 1.0e−6 between wt and Pdk RNAi; 1.0e−5 between wt and spargel^EY05931; 1.0e−5 between wt and ewg^EY05137. Scale bars: 10 μm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.