Image of the Day: Organ Crosstalk

ABOVE: ALISSA ARMSTRONG

Researchers are probing how different organs communicate about nutritional input. To get a sense of how nutrient sensing in adipose tissue plays into the production of eggs in the ovary, a research group from the University of South Carolina is homing in on the ovarioles, egg-producing units, of Drosophila. The ovariole nuclei stand out in blue, while actin (in red) reveals the ovarian muscle. The group is studying how these muscles respond to changes in nutrient sensing in the flies’ fat body and, in turn, how this affects oocytes when they mature.