Dynamics of altruistic fluid transport in egg development

Abstract

From insects to mice, oocytes develop within cysts alongside nurse-like sister germ cells. Prior to fertilization, the nurse cells cytoplasmic contents are transported into the oocyte, which grows as its sister cells regress and die. Although critical for fertility, the biological and physical mechanisms underlying this transport process are poorly understood. Here, we combined live imaging of germline cysts, genetic perturbations, and mathematical modeling to investigate the dynamics and mechanisms that enable directional and complete cytoplasmic transport in Drosophila melanogaster egg chambers. We discovered that during nurse cell (NC) dumping, most cytoplasm is transported into the oocyte independently of changes in myosin-II contractility, with dynamics instead explained by an effective Young-Laplaces law, suggesting hydraulic transport induced by baseline cell surface tension. A minimal flow network model inspired by the famous two-balloon experiment and genetic analysis of a myosin mutant correctly predicts the directionality of transport time scale, as well as its intercellular pattern. Long thought to trigger transport through squeezing, changes in actomyosin contractility are required only once cell volume is reduced by [~]75%, in the form of surface contractile waves that drive NC dumping to completion. Our work thus demonstrates how biological and physical mechanisms cooperate to enable a critical developmental process that, until now, was thought to be a mainly biochemically regulated phenomenon.