A cast of so-called ‘nurse cells’ surrounds and supports the growing fruit fly egg during development, supplying the egg—or ‘oocyte’—with all the nutrients and molecules it needs to thrive. Long viewed as passive in this process, the Drosophila egg actually plays an active role not only in its own growth, but also in the growth of the surrounding nurse cells, Princeton University researchers report on March 21 in Developmental Cell.
Click here for original story, Fruit fly egg takes an active hand in its own growth, highlighting parallels to mammals
Source: Phys.org